Musketeer Madness

OK, and this will please some, I admit to not being the brightest light on the porches hereabouts, but I really don't under stand this bracketing of Joe L.

I understand that it makes sense to send Xavier as a 2/3 to DC (closest to home, but does this mean all eight teams assigned to DC automatically go to Detroit?

Someone said that Xavier is going to the Charlotte Regional out of the DC first round games.

How are the Regional entrants determined?

'Twas a lot easier in the old days .. if you were a mid-east entry you played in the Kentucky (Lexington) Regional ... every year ... that is, unless Adolph didn't want to play you, then you were assigned elsewhere ... see Marquette circa 1970.

I understand that it makes sense to send Xavier as a 2/3 to DC (closest to home, but does this mean all eight teams assigned to DC automatically go to Detroit?

the first round is basically broken down into 16 pods of four teams each. those sixteen pods are placed in eight different cities, so no, all eight teams in dc aren't going to be tied into detroit.

How are the Regional entrants determined?

unless you're a #1 seed, they say you don't get any geographic consideration after the first two rounds. lets say for the sake of argument that the top four teams are north carolina, tennessee, texas and memphis. the higher the selection committee has a team ranked, the closer they are in the front of the line to receiving a geographic placement. if the teams are ranked in the order i have them listed:

north carolina would go to charlotte
tennessee would probalby go to detroit
texas would go to houston
memphis would go to phoenix

after that, they use the s curve to place the teams in. in other words, the best #2 seed would go to phoenix, because that's where the worst #1 seed is. sometimes changes are made, but they're not going to make a bigger effort to protect a #2 seed once they get to the sweet sixteen than they would a #1 seed. the payoff for being a #2 seed is in the first/second round. remember, sixteen pods in eight cities. the higher you are ranked, the closer to the front of the line you are. if ucla and stanford want to be placed in anaheim, then they better be ahead of arizona, usc, and the like.

the committee doesn't use the s curve for the 5-12 seeds. they just try and get them as close as possible, which isn't always easy. if you're one of the final #4 seeds you sort of wind up being placed in whatever cities are left, but you still have a better shot at being close to home if you're seeded 1-4 than you are 5-12. sometimes you get lucky, though. we got to go to lexington last year.

Thanks!