2019 NCAA Tournament

[Ralph Turner]

Gurantee alot of brackets took a hit with that loss of NWU!!!

... except the brackets in Tommie-land...

[7express]

So....the bean counters that count the flights do they factor in how many women's teams have to fly AND the potential flights to the final 4, or do the separate men's and women's committee worry about the flights for their respective tournaments??

If the NCAA as a whole does the flights for both the men's and women's tournaments I could potentially see Whitman hosting again.  By my count, the women's bracket only had 2 flights in the first round (George Fox to Wash U, and Pomona-Pitzer to Oshkosh) and in my projected sectional final hosts I have 2 flights (Texas-Dallas to Thomas More, and Amherst to St. Thomas), and I believe the men's tournament had 3 flights (the 3 teams to Whitman).  If they are combined, a total of 7 flights throughout both tournaments doesn't seem terrible, especially considering some years it seems like there's 5+ flights on one side alone.  Add in 2 flights to the final 4 and we are at 9 total.  Will they pay for 3 more to go back to Eastern Washington??

[7express]

Bottom left bracket is definitely going to Amherst.  All teams check in at under 500 miles, so 0 flights for the NCAA, the other 3 regions, yikes!
Bottom right I'll go Augustana getting hosting duties.  Turns out that quadrant needs 2 flights regardless, so give it to the best team and that's Augustana.
Upper right I'll go Oshkosh.  Guilford will have to fly regardless and I think Oshkosh gets the slight edge over Loras, but that one is real close, I could see that going either way, not comfortable in that at all.
Upper left Hamilton: IF Wooster had won, all of a sudden you could turn that quadrant from 2 flights into 1 so I could see maybe sending 3 flights to Walla Walla, but now with 3 guaranteed already on top of the 3 they sent to Walla Walla in the first round, I don't see how they send 3 up there again, but hey I've been wrong before and I'll be wrong again at some point.  I'm not sure this would have been possible anyways, with the women having the priority first round and the Texas-Dallas women hosting a first round pod, but ironically if that Whitman pod gets sent to Texas-Dallas instead they could subtract 1 flight from the first round, so maybe Whitman gets to host instead??  Too bad because we'll never know.

[Gregory Sager]

Upper left Hamilton: IF Wooster Whitman had won, all of a sudden you could turn that quadrant from 2 flights into 1 so I could see maybe sending 3 flights to Walla Walla, but now with 3 guaranteed already on top of the 3 they sent to Walla Walla in the first round, I don't see how they send 3 up there again, but hey I've been wrong before and I'll be wrong again at some point.  I'm not sure this would have been possible anyways, with the women having the priority first round and the Texas-Dallas women hosting a first round pod, but ironically if that Whitman pod gets sent to Texas-Dallas instead they could subtract 1 flight from the first round, so maybe Whitman gets to host instead??  Too bad because we'll never know.

FTFY

[Titan Q]

Upper left Hamilton: IF Wooster Whitman had won, all of a sudden you could turn that quadrant from 2 flights into 1 so I could see maybe sending 3 flights to Walla Walla, but now with 3 guaranteed already on top of the 3 they sent to Walla Walla in the first round, I don't see how they send 3 up there again, but hey I've been wrong before and I'll be wrong again at some point.  I'm not sure this would have been possible anyways, with the women having the priority first round and the Texas-Dallas women hosting a first round pod, but ironically if that Whitman pod gets sent to Texas-Dallas instead they could subtract 1 flight from the first round, so maybe Whitman gets to host instead??  Too bad because we'll never know.

FTFY

He had it right.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

If both Loras and Augustana host, have we ever had two sectionals that close to one another before?

[Titan Q]

Here is how I see the seeding order of the 16 teams left, using the official Selection Sunday criteria...

Projected overall seeding order of remaining 16 teams
1. Whitman: .963/.563/5-1
2. Augustana: .889/.544/8-3
3. Amherst: .852/.568/8-3 
4. Christopher Newport: .893/.549/7-3
5. Randolph-Macon: .893/.542/6-3
6. UW-Oshkosh: .885/.542/5-3
7. Loras: .778/.587/3-2
8. Oswego State: .815/.532/8-4
9. Swarthmore: .889/.535/5-1
10. Hamilton: .852/.553/4-4
11. St. Thomas .846/.531/5-3
12. Nichols: .926/.525/4-2
13. Williams: .769/.598/6-5
14. Marietta: .769/.549/6-4
15. Guilford: .750/.545/5-4
16. Wheaton: .704/.573/5-5


Whitman Bracket
1. Whitman
4. Christopher Newport
10. Hamilton
13. Williams
(Actual bracket pairings: Whitman vs Williams; Christopher Newport vs Hamilton)

Amherst Bracket
3. Amherst
5. Randolph-Macon
9. Swarthmore
12. Nichols
(Actual bracket pairings:  Amherst vs Nichols; Swarthmore vs Randolph-Macon)

Nebraska Wesleyan Bracket
6. UW-Oshkosh
7. Loras
11. St. Thomas
15. Guilford
(Actual bracket pairings:  UW-Oshkosh vs Loras; St. Thomas vs Guilford)

Augustana Bracket
2. Augustana
8. Oswego State
14. Marietta
16. Wheaton
(Actual bracket pairings:  Augustana vs Wheaton; Oswego State vs Marietta)


In a perfect world (no mileage considerations), the 4 highest seeds (in bold) would host. (I have Oshkosh vs Loras as basically a tie...that is a tough one.)

Also time to give huge kudos to the national committee for making maybe the best bracket I have ever seen.  Check out the balance here -- this is really, really hard to do with the geographical constraints they have.

The Loras/UW-Oshkosh game is the only one above that is "one game too early" based on seeding...but had Nebraska Wesleyan won, that bracket would be perfect too.

Kudos...this is great stuff.

[Titan Q]

I continue to think making Whitman fly to Hamilton or Williams would be wrong. 

* Whitman is the highest seed in that pod, and the highest seed remaining in the tournament.
* This pod requires 2 flights if you use Hamilton or Williams...and just 1 more if Whitman

Gotta be a way to find 1 more flight to protect Whitman, as the highest seed left in the tournament.

[Titan Q]

Official...

Hamilton
Amherst
UW-Oshkosh
Augustana

[blackhawks4]

I continue to think making Whitman fly to Hamilton or Williams would be wrong. 

* Whitman is the highest seed in that pod, and the highest seed remaining in the tournament.
* This pod requires 2 flights if you use Hamilton or Williams...and just 1 more if Whitman

Gotta be a way to find 1 more flight to protect Whitman, as the highest seed left in the tournament.

Agree, but WMN came in expecting to go on the road after the first pod--so it's no let-down.  Their road to the trophy is certainly one of the toughest

[Ralph Turner]

I continue to think making Whitman fly to Hamilton or Williams would be wrong. 

* Whitman is the highest seed in that pod, and the highest seed remaining in the tournament.
* This pod requires 2 flights if you use Hamilton or Williams...and just 1 more if Whitman

Gotta be a way to find 1 more flight to protect Whitman, as the highest seed left in the tournament.

Agree, but WMN came in expecting to go on the road after the first pod--so it's no let-down.  Their road to the trophy is certainly one of the toughest

Such is life on the archipelago...

I remember the 2008 women's Sweet 16.  Howard Payne was undefeated (29-0) and was filling the 3000 seat Brownwood Coliseum. The NCAA flew #19 DeSales (26-3) #1 Hope (29-0; Hope men were hosting the second weekend) and #22 George Fox (25-4) to Brownwood TX.  (An aside, the stars were aligned for HPU to host the Sweet 16!)

If Whitman had been undefeated, would the NCAA have allowed them to host?

[Gregory Sager]

Upper left Hamilton: IF Wooster Whitman had won, all of a sudden you could turn that quadrant from 2 flights into 1 so I could see maybe sending 3 flights to Walla Walla, but now with 3 guaranteed already on top of the 3 they sent to Walla Walla in the first round, I don't see how they send 3 up there again, but hey I've been wrong before and I'll be wrong again at some point.  I'm not sure this would have been possible anyways, with the women having the priority first round and the Texas-Dallas women hosting a first round pod, but ironically if that Whitman pod gets sent to Texas-Dallas instead they could subtract 1 flight from the first round, so maybe Whitman gets to host instead??  Too bad because we'll never know.

FTFY

He had it right.

Yeah, you're right. He was talking about two different sectionals at the same time, so it was a little confusing. That's what I get for reading it in a hurry. My bad, 7x.

[sac]

I think the Whitman bracket was always going to be in the East for Sectional weekend.

The possibility is still out there that all 4 final four teams could fly to Ft. Wayne.    Two guaranteed flights and St. Thomas, Guilford and Oswego St are all 500+ to Ft. Wayne.


Kind of interesting that 11 of 16 teams are eligible to fly to Ft. Wayne and if we were in Salem.......11 of 16 teams would be eligible to fly.  Though at present time only 1 bracket is a guaranteed flight to Salem vs the guaranteed 2 flights to Ft. Wayne we have at the moment.

[Titan Q]

I've heard that the plan was to have Whitman host...until the Augustana bracket turned into a 2 flight situation. 

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I've heard that the plan was to have Whitman host...until the Augustana bracket turned into a 2 flight situation.

I agree.  If those four could've driven, I think they would've sprung for one extra flight like they did the first weekend.