With the majority of the conference championship games over, attention is turning to the NCAA tournament, especially the seed placement, the match ups and where the games are being played. ESPN held a program yesterday regarding the selections and seed placement.
The No. 1 seeds (Duke, Maryland, Kansas and Cincinnati) are set in stone although there is some heated debate surrounding the No. 1 seed in the southern region. Some people feel that Oklahoma should have been seeded first, especially after winning their conference tournament.
Another topic discussed on yesterday's ESPN Selection Special was the amount of teams a conference should be allowed to have in the NCAA tournament.
According to Dick Vitale, sports commentator for ESPN, \Conferences should have five teams in the tournament, max'otherwise it makes the regular season a joke.""
Countering this argument was Texas Tech Head Coach Bobby Knight.
""I think the NCAA tournament should include the very best and not limit conferences to only five,"" Knight said.
One college that would agree with this is Butler, which was not selected into the NCAA Tournament despite having 25 wins this season.
According to collegerpi.com, which creates the RPI, while number of wins is important, there is no specific number that gets a team in. What gets a team considered are things like the RPI, number of wins, conference record of a team and the strength of schedule. And Butler did not have that strong of a schedule.
What is the RPI? The RPI is the Rating Percentage Index. There are a number of factors that determine the RPI and also the selection into the NCAA Tournament.
For the RPI these factors are a team's schedule, the opponent's schedule, and the opponents opponent's schedule. These factors go into a formula and determine the RPI which helps contribute to a teams NCAA tournament seed.
Other factors that contribute to an NCAA Tournament appearance are'the team's national ranking, conference record, number of wins and a good finish to a season, especially the last 10 games of the regular season.
In the case of UW, this last factor was especially important given that the Badgers had six straight wins to close out the regular season and a 5-2 record against nationally ranked teams.
Another topic that was touched upon by the ESPN Selection Special was regionalization, that is, where teams will be playing.
While there will be more of an emphasis on a closer location, there are some principles that will not be violated.
No team will be allowed to play on its home court. In addition, no two teams from the same conference will be bracketed so that they would meet before a regional final.
This is the reason why UW will be playing against St. John's in Washington D.C.
The places where seeds will play are placed close for convenience of the fans, but far enough away so home court atmosphere cannot be cultivated.
For example, Illinois will travel roughly two hours north to play at the United Center in Chicago, while top-seeded Kansas will play its opening rounds in St. Louis.
Even closer is Maryland, which will play at the MCI Center in downtown Washington. The Terrapins play a handful of games there, which is geographically friendly.
It is hoped, though, that this regionalization will be far enough away from home sites so that a home court advantage will not be a factor, yet many fans will still be able to show up and cheer on their teams.
