Pat Forde of Yahoo! Sports believes it will impact the overall “fairness and balance” of the NCAA Tournament if Kentucky is sent to Nashville as a 5 or 6 seed.
Here is an excerpt of Forde’s thoughts on seeding based on geography:
But bracketing is important, too, and every year there are misfires that end up impacting the tournament — primarily when it comes to geography. The NCAA has handy software that calculates distances from each campus to each site, but sometimes concessions made for proximity can affect overall fairness and balance. One to watch this year: If Kentucky ends up with a No. 5 or 6 seed and is sent to Nashville, check in with the potential second-round opponent seeded third or fourth about facing the Wildcats in front of 15,000 Big Blue fans.
Forde also picked Florida to win the SEC Tournament:
Coach who loves this tourney: John Calipari has won this event five times in eight seasons and advanced to the final game two other times.
Coach who hates this tourney: Bruce Pearl has had a couple moments, reaching the title game in 2009 at Tennessee and ’15 at Auburn. But he’s also lost his first game four times and is on a three-game SEC tourney losing streak.
Who wins: Florida (20). Gators have been up and down but they put it together late, beating Auburn, Alabama and Kentucky by a combined 40 points to close the regular season. Veteran team with great guards that can shoot from the perimeter and willingly defend — those are winning attributes in March.
