Out of curiosity, and I get it's not really apples to apples, how are the opening rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament done? Are schools hosts like in hockey? Has there ever been an issue with seeding due to a lower seed that had to play in an arena as the host?
I believe that both the men's and women's bb tournament still have "host" institutions, but I think they handle them differently. On the men's side, I'm pretty sure that it's a rule that the host institution cannot have its team play at that site, so, exactly the opposite of men's hockey.
The women's side is trickier. I think on the women's side, at least in the past, they've had some "host" schools who got to play at home against a team that was a higher seeded team.
I believe that both the men's and women's bb tournament still have "host" institutions, but I think they handle them differently. On the men's side, I'm pretty sure that it's a rule that the host institution cannot have its team play at that site, so, exactly the opposite of men's hockey.
The women's side is trickier. I think on the women's side, at least in the past, they've had some "host" schools who got to play at home against a team that was a higher seeded team.
Over the years one of my biggest problems with the PWR has been how you end up with Western in the field to begin with. Specifically in how they get in over other NCHC teams. Western finished in 6th place and got swept at St. Cloud in playoffs but still get in over CC and St. Cloud. I know it's math but that in-conference dynamic of the PWR has always bugged me.
In the men's tournament there are hosts for all of the eight first and second round sites and then the regional finals. You're right, the hosting rules are the exact opposite of hockey - the host team cannot play in any venue where they're the host under any circumstances in both the opening two rounds and the regionals. The other note is that the host institution is virtually guaranteed to profit off hosting because the men's tournament brings in a lot more revenue than hockey. Therefore, the hosts are often conferences or tourism boards in addition to schools. It's exceedingly rare that any kind of "host school shuffle" occurs in basketball, mostly because the big brand schools go out of their way not to host so they don't end up getting shipped thousands of miles away.
In the women's tournament, they break the teams into four-team pods for the opening two rounds. Those games are automatically held at the home site of the top-seeded team. That means if you're a top-4 seed (of 16), you get to play up to two home games in the first two rounds. You also get to keep part of the ticket revenue. The women's tournament used to do four regional final sites but recently moved to two sites a lot like the old hockey super regionals. For instance, this year two regional brackets will play in Portland, OR and Albany. Of course, it's a lot easier to have four basketball games in one day at one venue than it is to have four hockey games.
WMU -SCSU went to 3 games. Had WMU been swept they'd be out of the tournament.
Honestly, neither of those teams should be in based upon the smell test. However, if I had to choose between them SCSU 100% looking at the body of work and H2H. WMU played a Penn State like NC schedule and SCSU simply didn't do well against middle of the pack teams nationally. Digest this detail about these two teams -
H2H - SCSU 5-2 (including playoff series)
WMU 9-0-1 in non-conference play.
Opponents - Ferris, Bowling Green, St. Lowrance, Lindenwood x4!!
SCSU 4-5-1 in non-conference play.
Opponents - St. Thomas, Minnesota State, Alaska, Michigan, and Bemidji.
In addition, neither team was good down the stretch in conference play (prior to port season series).
WMU since January 9-9-1
SCSU since January 4-9-3 (2-1 in the shootout "ties")
In my opinion, again if we're talking smell test and not Pairwise math, CC was better than both of these teams especially in the back half of the year. They just ran into a hot Omaha.
Record since January 11-5-2
CC's losses since January -
Loss @ Minnesota (series split)
OT loss @ UMD (series split)
OT loss vs SCSU (series split)
Loss @ Omaha (Loss/tie)
Loss @ Denver (series split)
WMU is a strange team. I think they rank in the top 10 or 12 in both offense and defense this year. Their advance stats are dynamite. I watched them play two games at North Dakota and thought they were the best team I'd seen this year. I think the "expected goals" in those two games were something like 5-2 WMU and 3-1 WMU, and they got swept.
I watched them dismantle a very good DU team twice in the four games they played.
But they finished sixth in league play. Honestly, I really don't get it. All I know is I don't want my team playing them if WMU happens to be "on" that night.
Honestly, neither of those teams should be in based upon the smell test. However, if I had to choose between them SCSU 100% looking at the body of work and H2H. WMU played a Penn State like NC schedule and SCSU simply didn't do well against middle of the pack teams nationally. Digest this detail about these two teams -
H2H - SCSU 5-2 (including playoff series)
WMU 9-0-1 in non-conference play.
Opponents - Ferris, Bowling Green, St. Lowrance, Lindenwood x4!!
SCSU 4-5-1 in non-conference play.
Opponents - St. Thomas, Minnesota State, Alaska, Michigan, and Bemidji.
In addition, neither team was good down the stretch in conference play (prior to port season series).
WMU since January 9-9-1
SCSU since January 4-9-3 (2-1 in the shootout "ties")
In my opinion, again if we're talking smell test and not Pairwise math, CC was better than both of these teams especially in the back half of the year. They just ran into a hot Omaha.
Record since January 11-5-2
CC's losses since January -
Loss @ Minnesota (series split)
OT loss @ UMD (series split)
OT loss vs SCSU (series split)
Loss @ Omaha (Loss/tie)
Loss @ Denver (series split)
You’re right that Western can be a very good team when they are on. They are a veteran team....
