1 seed, but your Sweet 16 game is in San Francisco against Arizona in what feels like a road game. OR 2 seed, but your Sweet 16 game is in Newark against Iowa State in a true neutral site game? The more I think about it, the more I think a 2 seed might be better unless they for some reason put an east coast based 4 seed in our bracket as a 1 seed.
I think it’s a crapshoot either way. Gators can play with anyone anywhere. If we lose I know it will be because someone played their best game of the year. Not because we didn’t bring it.
Not sure Arizona would consider San Francisco to be much of a home court advantage. They would probably have more fans there, but the site is not really that close to Tucson. Just closer than Gainesville, but Gator Nation is everywhere. And the opponent could be Purdue, or even Xavier. Remember that Arizona is projected to be a #5, and Xavier would likely be the #12. There always seems to be at least one 12-5 upset. When you get to the Sweet 16 and (hopefully) beyond, you will be playing good teams, regardless.
Hmm... San Fran is a virtual home game for Arizona? It's 863 miles by road. Cleveland is 861 miles from Gainesville. I'd like to play there, it being almost a home game.
You always want the 1-seed. They are twice as likely to make the final four. We’ve only had it twice as a program, and both times made the final weekend. By contrast, we have been a 2-seed twice, once losing in the Elite 8, once going down in the second round. Limited sample size for us, but pretty much reflects the odds.
I have followed your logic on this over the past couple of weeks and been letting it percolate. But, I recently saw this: What the NBA bubble taught scientists about jet lag. I would take a 2 without the jet lag. But then, I know nothing.
For Arizona, the time zone advantage is real. (granted they went to Mountain time this Sunday) There's a reason why over a long period of time, NBA East teams underperform vs NBA West teams in cross-conference matches. Their internal clocks are saying "past bedtime". I agree that Midwest would be a great place to land. South is going to be stacked this year.
You go out to a regional site two days before you play, and there is no certainty that you are playing a team that has that advantage. Entirely different from a NBA game, where you travel the night before or morning of, and you are a playing a team that woke up in its own bedroom that morning. I can honestly say I have never heard anyone cite this study or issue in relation to the NCAA tournament apart from this board. Granted, all of our deep tourney runs have happened in Eastern or Central, so there’s not a lot of precedent for us, but I would love to see a study of 1-seeds out of their time zone.
I’m on the side of preferring a #1 seed over worrying about location, but I will note that Arizona doesn’t do daylight savings, so currently they are actually on San Francisco time.
I prefer the Eastern or Central time zone- no matter the seed. But I also think we will be fine in whatever region we are in.
Thanks GatoRade. I knew about the time swap but got it backwards in my post. Sunday they switched to SF time, not from.
2010, Syracuse shipped out west to Salt Lake City; lost to Butler 2011, Duke shipped out west to Anaheim; lost to Arizona...UConn won the regional beating San Diego State and Arizona 2018, Xavier shipped out to LA (not really)...they didn't make it to regional play. 2023, Kansas shipped out to Vegas (see Xavier). 2024, UNC shipped out west to LA; lost to Alabama; Clemson also beat Arizona before falling to Alabama I think you also want to avoid having that victim mentality. Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
Watching the Big 10 football games, it occurred to me that teams traveling cross country seemed at a disadvantage. Then I saw the study and thought, "Interesting." I make no claims about NCAA vs NBA, Football vs Basketball, but IF I were betting, I would take long distance travel into account.
