'Wisconsin might have gotten the worst draw' in March Madness, says Field of 68 podcast host Rob Dauster
A host of a popular college basketball podcast isn't taking Wisconsin very far in his NCAA tournament bracket. And it has nothing to do with the Badgers' roster.
It's because of Wisconsin's bizarre tournament draw in the West Region.
Longtime college basketball reporter Rob Dauster, co-founder of The Field of 68 podcast, notes that it's often who and where you play more than how you play. He's not sure how No. 3 seed Wisconsin ended up with an early Thursday game in Denver against Montana and a fairly hellacious route to the Sweet 16.
"I think that Wisconsin might have gotten the worst draw out of anybody in the NCAA tournament this year," Dauster said on the podcast. "I think that they have very real reason to kind of be frustrated with how this schedule played out. And here's why.
"They played four games in four days. The last game that they played in the Big Ten tournament was the last game that was played before the Selection Sunday show started. They were on CBS before the Selection Sunday show started. They have to fly home from Indianapolis to Madison, then fly from Madison to Denver. They'll be playing at altitude in Denver and they play the third game of the NCAA tournament. They play at 1:30 on Thursday, which will be 11:30 a.m. local time. ... And to top it all off, they'll be playing at altitude against a Montana team that lives in altitude.
"If they win, they very well could end up getting BYU in the second round of the tournament, who is coming from Salt Lake, which is a much easier travel than coming from Madison to get to Denver. ...
"If I'm Wisconsin, I'm like, 'What is going on? How did I end up with this bracket, with this draw, playing at this time, these teams, in that region and that location?"
As a result, Dauster has the Badgers falling to a high-scoring BYU team in the second round.
His take begins at about the three-hour, 12-minute mark of the full bracket breakdown podcast.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 'Wisconsin might have gotten the worst draw' in March Madness: Dauster
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