Running 2022-23 NCAA Basketball Thread

Rockingham was hard as hell. Not at all a crappy track.

 

There you go. After the 3 seeds it gets less and less common for the NCAA to protect higher seeds, but it kind of sucks for the top 5 seed to have to go across the entire country. I'm sure the NCAA has its reasons.

 

Prediction: The Tar Heels won’t be in a position to turn down the NIT next year because they won’t be good enough to merit selection for it.

 

After 47 years and four months on this planet, I will be fulfilling a lifelong dream Thursday by attending the NCAA tournament for the first time. Because I wanted the full experience and because I was unsure which session Bama would be in, I bought a ticket to each. Now I’m debating whether to go to both or sell my ticket to the night session and recoup my whole investment, because inexplicably the committee put ninth seed Auburn in Birmingham. I can see clouds of profanity rolling in from Iowa City and Houston.

 

Good for you, Dixie. Enjoy every moment.

 

I used to go to the first and second rounds every year and have followed my team there a couple of times. The first time I followed my team they didn't play until the last game of the day, so it was easy to go to all the other games. They also won making the second day an easy go as well. I went last year, and it was the first game of the day and they lost in an upset and we couldn't stomach watching the rest so we didn't go to any of the second session and then came home early. My wife and I had experienced it plenty so it wasn't a big deal. We took our 11-year-old and the emotional loss and traveling for the first time to something like that was too much for him! He had fun walking around a different place, though.

Since you have never been and it is relatively certain you don't have to worry about Alabama at least on the first day, I would soak it all up and watch all the games. They are a lot of fun to see all the different fans, mascots, bands, close games, maybe upsets, etc. The first two rounds of the NCAA tourney are about the best days in sports. And seeing your school, regardless of seed, is fantastic. Have a lot of fun!

 

Good for you
I got to see Michigan State beat UConn in the national semifinals in Detroit
Fortunately I was working when North Carolina crushed MSU in the final

 

To expand on this, as Dixie brought up, Auburn getting to play in Birmingham as the 9 seed is almost criminal. That isn't protecting the 1 seed at all. Yeah, they gave Houston the No. 2 overall and the trip to Kansas City, but potentially play a road game first? Auburn might not win the first round, but that is some crap.

 

All the games from Dayton on Tru. Anyone still in the business and on the desk, you have been warned!

 

At-large seeds don’t fall below 11 any more, so almost by definition a 12 is going to be the strongest of teams from the single-bid leagues. Are you arguing that SDSU and SMC should have been a 4 or better? If so, who should they have bumped? (I’m willing to listen, particularly for the Aztecs.)