Thursday's rounds of 64 and 32 will be played at home courts of 16 #khsbbk regional champions.
Friday's round of 16 and Saturday's of eight will be played at Murray State, Western, Eastern and Morehead.
Sunday's round of four and Monday night's final will be played at Kentucky State (if UK, U of L and Northern Kentucky advance), the Yum! Center (if UK advances but U of L does not), at BB&T Arena (if UK and U of L advance but Northern Kentucky does not) advances or Rupp Arena (if UK does not advance).
All of the conference regular-season and tournament champions are being invited (except for, of course, UNC), and they will be distributed among the 16 Thursday sites. At-large invitations will be extended Tuesday to the number of teams needed to reach 64, and they will be blind-drawn into the bracket.
OK, that was fast. All of the invited regular-season and tournament conference champions, except Gonzaga and Oregon, will be in the tournament. (In a case of regular-season co-winners, the team awarded the top seed for its conference tournament was invited to the UKIT.)
ReplyDeleteThat puts 44 teams into the tournament, and, per the fine folks at Randomly Scrambled Lists of Numbers, ...
ReplyDeleteMiddle Tennessee State, Princeton and Kansas will be playing Thursday at Hopkinsville High.
ReplyDeleteDayton and Nevada will be playing at Meade County High.
ReplyDeleteIona, Arizona and Vermont will be playing at Scott County High.
ReplyDeleteNorth Dakota, Monmouth and Kent State will be playing at Taylor Mill Scott High.
ReplyDeleteJacksonville State, Iowa State and Winthrop will be playing at Shelbyville Martha Layne Collins High.
ReplyDeleteMichigan, North Carolina Central and Kentucky will be playing at Union Cooper High.
ReplyDeleteIllinois State, California-Irvine and East Tennessee State will be playing at Bowling Green High.
ReplyDeleteCalifornia-Davis, Florida Gulf Coast and New Orleans will be playing at Perry County Central High.
ReplyDeleteTexas Southern and Duke will be playing at Elliott County High.
ReplyDeleteWichita State, South Dakota and Rhode Island will be playing at Pikeville High.
ReplyDeleteSouthern Methodist, Texas-Arlington and Bucknell will be playing at Louisville Fern Creek High.
ReplyDeleteMount Saint Mary's, California State-Bakersfield and Akron will be playing at Pulaski County High.
ReplyDeleteNorthern Kentucky, Belmont and South Dakota State will be playing at Taylor County High.
ReplyDeleteTroy and Oakland will be playing at Graves County High.
ReplyDeletePurdue, New Mexico State and North Carolina-Wilmington will be playing at Harlan County High.
ReplyDeleteVillanova and North Carolina-Greensboro will be playing at Louisville Ballard High.
ReplyDeleteOK, so we'll see who gets the 20 at-large berths. Anyone out there who has some kind of system or Method for ranking college-basketball teams: We would welcome your input on 20 suggestions of the nation's top 20 teams not already invited or excluded from the UKIT bracket (or maybe 21, in case one of the teams elects to decline because of some prior commitment).
ReplyDeleteSince Sagarin's rankings appear to be the best through the brackets I've been following I would just use his rankings. Or you could go with the NCAA's rankings RPI.
DeleteMorning-session results from Hopkinsville High School:
ReplyDelete-- Princeton 73, Middle Tennessee State 67
-- Kansas 83, Louisville 74
Morning session in Brandenburg:
ReplyDelete-- Dayton 88, Minnesota 80
-- Nevada 91, Baylor 87
From Georgetown:
ReplyDelete-- Arizona 68, Iona 60
-- Vermont 86, Wake Forest 70
In Taylor Mill ...
ReplyDelete-- Monmouth 89, North Dakota 67
-- Miami (Florida) 65, Kent State 60
Morning in Shelbyville:
ReplyDelete-- Jacksonville State 77, Iowa State 71 (#HARPERMANIA!)
-- Wisconsin 80, Winthrop 56
At Union Cooper:
ReplyDelete-- North Carolina Central 81, Michigan 69 (wow!)
-- Kentucky 70, Florida 66 (PHEW!)
Ten points and nine rebounds for Derek Willis.
At Bowling Green High:
ReplyDelete-- Illinois State 57, California-Irvine 56
-- Marquette 79, East Tennessee State 71
Morning at Perry County Central High:
ReplyDelete-- Florida Gulf Coast 85, California-Davis 59
-- Kansas State 79, New Orleans 59
At Elliott County High:
ReplyDelete-- UCLA 85, Texas Southern 74
-- Cincinnati 74, Duke 64 (happy times in Sandy Hook!)
At Pikeville High:
ReplyDelete-- Wichita State 90, South Dakota 69
-- Creighton 72, Rhode Island 64
At Fern Creek:
ReplyDelete-- Southern Methodist 79, Texas-Arlington 74
-- West Virginia 96, Bucknell 84
At Pulaski County:
ReplyDelete-- California State-Bakersfield 68, Mount Saint Mary's 58
-- Florida State 97, Akron 78
At Taylor County High:
ReplyDelete-- Belmont 67, Northern Kentucky 64 (farewell to the Norse)
-- Butler 76, South Dakota State 75
Morning session at Graves County High:
ReplyDelete-- Houston 86, Troy 71
-- Oklahoma State 89, Oakland 85
At Harlan County High:
ReplyDelete-- Purdue 74, New Mexico State 60
-- North Carolina-Wilmington 76, Virginia 69
Morning session at Louisville Ballard High:
ReplyDelete-- Saint Mary's 74, Villanova 65
-- Notre Dame 71, North Carolina-Greensboro 55
And now to imagine where in each of these towns everyone would go get something to eat before the round-of-32 games ...
ReplyDeleteThursday-evening games ...
ReplyDeleteAt Ballard: Saint Mary's 62, Notre Dame 53 (on to WKU)
At Harlan County: UNCW 88, Purdue 66 (on to WKU)
At Graves County: Houston 90, Oklahoma State 81 (on to WKU)
At Taylor County: Butler 80, Belmont 70 (on to Murray)
At Pulaski County: Florida State 75, CS-Bakersfield 68 (on to Morehead)
At Fern Creek: West Virginia 91, SMU 84 (on to WKU)
At Pikeville: Wichita State 82, Creighton 72 (on to Murray)
At Elliott County: UCLA 76, Cincinnati 61 (on to EKU)
At Perry County Central: Kansas State 67, FGCU 61 (on to Morehead)
At Bowling Green: Illinois State 78, Marquette 66 (on to Morehead)
At Cooper: Kentucky 72, North Carolina Central 62 (on to Murray)
At Collins: Wisconsin 72, Jacksonville State 55 (on to Murray)
At Scott: Miami 86, Monmouth 56 (on to EKU)
At Scott County: Arizona 70, Vermont 60 (on to Morehead)
At Meade County: Dayton 76, Nevada 72 (on to EKU)
At Hoptown: Kansas 75, Princeton 70 (on to EKU)
Adebayo and Gabriel combined for 30 rebounds!
DeleteSo the Murray bracket tomorrow evening is Butler vs. Wichita State and Kentucky vs. Wisconsin. That's nuts.
ReplyDeleteWKU has St. Mary's vs. UNCW and Houston vs. West Virginia.
Morehead has Florida State vs. Kansas State and Illinois State vs. Arizona.
EKU has UCLA vs. Miami (Florida) and Dayton vs. Kansas.
If I'm driving the UK bus from Union to Murray State this morning for tonight's game, we're probably stopping at Lake Barkley State Resort Park for the catfish buffet for lunch.
ReplyDeleteFriday-night results roll in ... from Morehead State, it's Florida State winning over Kansas State, 88-79 ... from Eastern, it's Miami (Florida) over UCLA, 84-74 ... at Western, it's UNCW ousting Saint Mary's, 71-68 ... in Murray, it's Butler taking out Wichita State, 93-88 ...
ReplyDeleteSecond games of the night ... Illinois State 69, Arizona 68 (at Morehead) ... Dayton shocks Kansas, 81-74, at Eastern ... at WKU, West Virginia turns back Houston, 79-75 ... and the game of the night ...
ReplyDeleteThe Cats are sharp ... 89-82 over Wisconsin ... Monk hits four of five threes; Mulder, three of four ... Fox has five assists, two steals and no turnovers to go along with 16 points ... on to the round of eight!
ReplyDeleteSaturday night:
ReplyDelete-- Florida State vs. Illinois State at Morehead State
-- Miami (Florida) vs. Dayton at Eastern Kentucky
-- North Carolina-Wilmington vs. West Virginia at Western Kentucky
-- Butler vs. Kentucky at Murray State
Final from Morehead: Florida State 76, Illinois State 69
ReplyDeleteFinal from EKU: Dayton 84, Miami 70
ReplyDeleteFinal from WKU: West Virginia 88, UNCW 78
ReplyDeleteFinal from Murray: Butler 83, Kentucky 74
ReplyDeleteWell, heck.
Rupp Arena on Sunday:
ReplyDelete-- West Virginia vs. Dayton
-- Florida State vs. Butler
I didn't watch last night's games--I lost interest after Kentucky was knocked out--but Dayton beat West Virginia, 76-64, and Butler beat Florida State, 82-74.
ReplyDeleteThis might've been my favorite pretend I've ever pretended at the HP. I wonder who won the Dayton-Butler championship.
ReplyDelete