The Wichita State / Miami FL game has just tipped off in a day that totally doesn’t resemble a typical Round of 32 Saturday – but should be some fantastic basketball.

Here is our fantastic set of games today. (with both seeds and coaches poll ranking)

12:15 pm – #3 Miami FL (11) vs #11 Wichita St (29)

2:40 pm – #4 Duke (20)  vs #12 Yale (T37)

5:15 pm – #4 Kentucky (13) vs #5 Indiana (12)

6:10 pm – #4 Iowa St (19) vs #12 Little Rock (T39)

7:10 pm – #1 Virginia (5) vs #9 Butler (T37)

7:45 pm – #1 Kansas (1) vs #9 Connecticut (27)

8:40 pm – #3 Utah (14) vs #11 Gonzaga (T30)

9:40 pm – #1 North Carolina (3) vs #9 Providence (28)

 

At first glance, it isn’t that far out of whack.   You could make an argument that while Little Rock and Yale are mis-seeded by coaches ranking, we all know that small conference champions tend to get 12 seeds (and that is why they are so dangerous).

Two glaring teams that are mis-seeded are Wichita St and Gonzaga – but if their poll rankings made them 7/8 seeds, it probably is a break for a 3 seed to play them.  But here is a great piece of information.  Vegas has listed Wichita St as a favorite and Gonzaga / Utah as a pick-em game.  I don’t think I have seen a double digit seed listed as a Vegas favorite/even match against a protected (top 4) seed – definitely don’t think I have seen two on the same day.  And I don’t think that this is saying anything about Miami / Utah – it is more about the talent of Wichita St and Gonzaga.   (Editor note: of course, as I write my rant below, Miami has jumped out to a 19 point lead – go figure what happens in March).

But the match up that really still has me riled up is Kentucky vs Indiana.  If you believe the AP poll, both these teams should be 3 seeds.  Coaches poll has 3 seed vs 4 seed.  Either way, there is not any good reason that the SEC and Big 10 champions should be playing this early in the tournament – and quite honestly, it feels wrong that the reward for winning this game would be to have to play the ACC champion and second ranked team in the tournament (assuming North Carolina handles their business against Providence).

I would like to believe that it is just an accident, but I am starting to have a conspiracy theory here.   If you look at the last 2 Final Fours, 6 of the 8 schools came from the Big 10 (Wisconsin in 2014 and 2015, Michigan St in 2015) and the SEC (Kentucky in 2014 and 2015 and Florida in 2014).  And last year’s champion was from the ACC (Duke).  It almost looks like the committee is making sure this doesn’t happen again by putting their champions all in the same region and make them knock each other out so only one of them can get to the Final Four.

I like to believe it is just dumb luck – but I do think it is an interesting coincidence that Kentucky has made it to the Final Four the last two years, was co-champs in the regular season, won their conference tournament – and their reward is to have to play the regular season champ of the other conference that has sent the most recent teams to the Final Four and potentially the #2 team in the tournament just to get to the Elite 8.   I don’t even like Kentucky – and I still question how fair this is.