from a regional in their hometown. I get that one of the mandates in how the NCAA places teams is "atmosphere and attendance" and I know a HOST team has to be placed in the region they host, but don't reward a 4 seed. Since the NCAA sees that "a flight is a flight" it makes no difference if MSU goes to Manchester or to Providence anyway, so put them in Manchester and keep the bracket perfectly intact. What it is between Providence and Manchester anyway, 90 miles? If your fans won't drive 90 miles to see you play a tournament game you hardly deserve the reward of seeing them play at home when it doesn't HAVE to happen.
although it's pretty nice.
is where they play basketball and is not far at all.
I think the committee will maintain bracket integrity except for switching Ohio State and Arizona State. Providence will likely play in Providence because the committee seems to do that with non-hosts that are that close.
Fargo, ND:
1. St. Cloud
8. Denver
10. Arizona State
16. AIC
Allentown, PA:
2. Minnesota-Duluth
7. Quinnipiac
9. Ohio State
15. Bowling Green
Providence
3. Minnesota State
6. Northeastern
11. Cornell
14. Providence
Manchester
4. Massachusetts
5. Clarkson
12. Notre Dame
13. Harvard
it gets to keep the Sun Devils instead of the Buckeyes.
If they want to bolster the attendance in Allentown that is the way to do it. The Irish have a huge following in Philadelphia and NY. The PPL Center will be empty even with Cornell. I have season tickets for the Phantoms so we got tickets for the tournament early. I wear my Irish jersey to the Phantoms games and all the ushers ask me if I think ND will play there. It would be packed if they did.
I could be mistaken. I may be overgeneralizing from some poor turnouts at regionals closer to South Bend.
The other issue is, ND is two spots away from the bracket that I would have expected to put in Allentown. I suppose they could move ND by one spot and put the #3 seed there instead of the #2.
played in the eastern regionals than when we played in Toledo. None of the 4 teams had more than three or four hundred fans in Toledo. Worst "crowd" I have ever seen for a tournament game and one of the most egregious lies I have ever seen in a boxscore. After Notre Dame went down 4-0 midway through the second period I counted the house and there were around 800 people in the stands. We left during the first period of the Miami game and the crowd was no better.
despite the fact that we were playing UML which is about 25 miles away. I guess everyone was expecting a repeat of the HE semi final two weeks before which was one of the poorest performances I’ve ever seen from a Jackso coached team.
I think it’s correct though
I’m assuming they’ll put the Providence group in Providence