Saturday, March 20, 2010

Western Teams Flexing Their Muscle In 2010 Tournament


The East Coast gets all the love. A middle-of-the-road Big East or ACC team will get more respect than one from the Pac-10 or Big XII. It's just the way it is.

However, the West Coast has made a nice run in this tournament.

True "west coast" teams that advanced to the second round of the tournament include St. Mary's (which has now advanced to the Sweet 16), Washington, Gonzaga and California. Okay, that's just four teams ... but you also can factor in western schools like BYU and New Mexico as the only non-Eastern or Central time zone schools still alive. Six isn't bad when you consider there are less amounts of teams out there.

Then think of the country's magical dividing line ... the Mississippi River. The Mighty Mississip. The Old Miss. The Old Man.

Well, Kansas, Northern Iowa, Baylor, Kansas State, Missouri and Texas A&M join the six I mentioned above as teams west of the Mississippi still alive in this tournament. That's 12 of the 32 teams.

Also amazing since you figure that the Pac-10, WCC, Mountain West and Big XII are a combined 11-4 in this tournament (now 12-4 with St. Mary's win over Villanova). The Big East alone has already lost five games.

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