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Mild West: Why NCAA Tournament has a West Coast problem
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- Mild West: Why NCAA Tournament has a West Coast problem
SAN DIEGO – Two of the greatest men's basketball coaches of all time had to solve a basic geography test this week.
Where is San Diego, California?
"It's not Alaska," quipped St. John's coach Rick Pitino , who is from New York.
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Where is Portland, Oregon?
"Are we in the United States?" Arkansas coach John Calipari asked on ESPN . "I thought they put us in another country."
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Pitino's team from New York plays Northern Iowa in a first-round NCAA Tournament game more than 2,400 miles away in San Diego on Friday, March 20. Calipari's team plays Hawaii in a first-round game more than 1,600 miles away in Portland on Thursday.
But this is what happens when the NCAA still tries to keep a geographical balance for postseason game sites even though the sport itself has become even more entrenched in the Eastern and Central time zones. Only 10 of the 68 tournament teams (14.7%) come from west of the Kansas border this year, tied for the second-fewest number of western teams in the 21st century , according to data provided to USA TODAY Sports by Stats Perform.
There are several reasons for this, one of which is baked into the cake: Only 63 of 361 teams (17.5%) in Division I are located west of the Central time zone, according to Stats Perform.
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At the same time, other money-driven developments raise even bigger questions about the future of the game out west after the implosion of the old Pac-12 Conference in 2024 — a seismic shift that left zero power conferences headquartered west of metro Dallas.
Blame it on realignment, too
Only two teams from the former Pac-12 (UCLA and Arizona) earned NCAA Tournament bids this year, which is tied for the lowest in the modern era for legacy Pac-12 teams, all located in the Pacific and Mountain time zones.
Just 10 years ago, this former "conference of champions" earned seven bids to the tournament . Just two years ago, a record 16 teams west of Kansas earned NCAA bids, including four from the Pac-12.
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But then UCLA and USC left the Pac-12 to earn more money in the Big Ten , based in Chicago.
Oregon and Washington followed them there, while Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Arizona State left for the Big 12, based in Texas.
The result is more crowded competition in the Big Ten (now with 18 teams) and Big 12 (now with 16 teams). UCLA earned one of nine NCAA bids for the Big Ten but now plays a first-round game in Philadelphia this week after playing in the Big Ten tournament last weekend in Chicago.
"We're not concerned with travel," UCLA coach Mick Cronin said this week. "We're experienced at it."
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New York and Philadelphia teams to invade San Diego
The NCAA still tries to make this easier. It says so right in its guidelines for geographic placement of teams in the tournament.
"Teams should remain as close to their home region as possible, based on mileage," the guidelines state .
In theory, this would ease the travel burden on teams and help maximize attendance at games.
But tournament game sites are set years in advance. And there's only so much the selection committee can do if only four teams earned bids from California. As a result, three of the eight teams playing first-round games in San Diego this week are from New York or Philadelphia but only one is from California (No. 13-seed Cal Baptist from Riverside).
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This isn't ideal from a business standpoint if the goal is to sell tickets and cultivate the next generation of fans in California, a state that not only has the most people but also a rich hoops history, at least until recently. In men's and women's basketball, the state has the most combined NCAA Tournament winners, Final Four Most Outstanding Players and NCAA Tournament-winning coaches since 1939 with 37, according to a recent study by BetMGM .
John Calipari says 'We only have to fly six hours'
Of the four regions in the bracket this year, one is still called the "West Region," whose championship will be decided this month in San Jose, California. The problem is there might not be many local fans to watch it there. Only five of the 16 first-round slots in the West Region are from teams west of Kansas. Only two of those five are among the five highest seeds in the region — No. 1 Arizona and No. 3 Gonzaga.
"We'll have maybe a few hundred people," Pitino said of the trip to San Diego . "That's about it… It's not ideal traveling to the West Coast, but you deal with it and you just make the best of it."
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Calipari's team was scheduled to depart for Portland early on Tuesday, March 17.
"We only have to fly six hours to get there," Calipari said on Sirius XM . "So you know, it's not all that bad."
His comments dripped with sarcasm, but if he wins his next two games in Oregon, his team will be rewarded. Arkansas would play the following week in San Jose, which is further south on the West Coast and at least a little bit closer to home.
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer . Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why NCAA Tournament teams have to travel so far for March Madness
