Question re: Girl's NCAA Tourney Home Court

Ok. Maybe I'm missing something here...but surfing the channels, I come across ESPN2, where #9 Michigan State is playing #1 Duke.

However, the game is being played at the Breslin Center at MSU. How the heck does the #1 seed have to travel and play on the #9 seed's home court in the NCAA tourney? Something isn't right here?

It's kind of like hockey

If the U would have made the tourney, they would host as a 3 or 4 seed.

Schools bid in advance to host. If Notre Dame would have beaten the Gophers, they would be hosting the 2nd seeded Texas A & M.

Filling seats

Both hockey and women's basketball know it's tough to sell tickets to early round games without a home connection, so they schedule games on home courts for the first and second rounds. Recall how the Lindsey Whalen led Gophers, seeded 7th, beat 2 seed K-State at Williams on their way to the Final Four.

What a stupid sport.

The Iowa women had this chance, too. They lost their opener against Georgia Tech on Sunday night in Iowa City. But, had Iowa won, they would have played No. 1 seed Oklahoma at Carver-Hawkeye Arena tonight.

its not right. not that i am a big duke fan, but think about how much that sucks for them. Going into a arena that is actually pretty full as a number one seed and everyone is a michigan state fan.

"Pretty full"?

There were 5,179 people at Breslin. It holds just under 15,000.

This happens quite frequently in women's basketball. Bottom line is sometimes higher seeds are going to have to play on the home court of a lower seed. The women need to draw as big of crowds as possible for the NCAAs (hence, if a host school makes the tourney they're darn well going to play at home) because playing at all neutral sites in the first two rounds would be suicide for the women's tournament, as well as an even bigger embarrassment with regards to the sparse crowds (save for the Tennessees and UConns). The crowds are already pathetic as it is.

No doubt this is getting more attention than usual because it's the Pukies that had to play a true road game. Poor, poor Pukies. I feel so bad for you.