AB_skin_test wrote:Another Coach/Former Assistant in first round was San Diego St/New Mexico State.
I just wish the NCAA would admit that they do this shit.
At a certain point, there stops being a way to have these "coincidences" not happen (although your example of teacher-student in this case is good because how often does NM State make the tourney, and this year, I think they did it to "keep them closer to home" and SDSU couldn't play in San Diego).
With realignment and long tournament histories for some teams, there may not be a way to avoid those matchups. Before their slide, Syracuse fans were speculating they would be in the East bracket with Villanova and UConn, playing in the Garden. Had tOSU won yesterday, they would be in a rematch of an Elite Eight game from a couple years ago that went down to the final seconds (and now a former SU player is an assistant for Dayton... and Greg Paulus, who played football in his final year at Syracuse, is a tOSU assistant). If their bracket holds form, they play Kansas in Sweet 16, a rematch of the 2003 title game. Other top four seeds there is a recent storyline from are Michigan (Final Four last year), Louisville, Duke, Virginia, Villanova, Wisconsin (from a Sweet Sixteen game a couple years ago).
But, yeah, I think the NCAA does fix some of that stuff to generate interest (UMass and tOSU could have been switched, but the in-state matchup of tOSU-Dayton or coach v. assistant storyline you cited was undoubtedly appealing to the NCAA/TV people).