South breakdown: Deep Memphis may push Ohio State

Explain how this can happen:

How can Louisville be a No. 6 seed in the South Regional and still get treated better by the NCAA Tournament selection committee -- geographically speaking -- than almost any of the tournament's allegedly favored No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 or No. 4 seeds?

Rick Pitino's Cards have to be happy staying close to home. (US Presswire)

The Cardinals' first two games are in Lexington, Ky. Normally, Louisville is hated in Lexington, home of the Kentucky Wildcats. This isn't normal. Kentucky fans won't be hanging around Rupp to boo Rick Pitino. They'll be traveling to Chicago to watch the Big Blue lose to Villanova in the first round. Or they'll be staying at home in front of their television set.

Rupp Arena, located about 80 miles from Louisville, will be a de facto home floor for the Cardinals' first two games of the 2007 NCAA Tournament. That's great if you're a Louisville player, coach or fan.

But it's ridiculously unfair if you're third-seeded Texas A&M, which faces a second-round game against the Cardinals in what will be the reddest Rupp Arena in history.

Three storylines

1. Obligatory coach-mentor game: In the second round, Ohio State's Thad Matta could meet up with his former lead assistant, Sean Miller, who replaced Matta at Xavier two years ago. The selection committee says it doesn't try to set up these sorts of games, and I believe them. But you'll find all sorts of comments from both sides this week alluding to the cleverness of the committee for putting together such a game. As if the NCAA Tournament -- on CBS -- needed any help getting major ratings.

2. Easy as pie: Ohio State has been given a free pass to the regional final, what with games against Central Connecticut State in the first round (OSU by 40), Xavier or BYU in the second round (OSU by 20) and most likely Virginia or Tennessee in the Sweet 16 (OSU by 15). The Buckeyes will get a major test in the regional final if second-seeded Memphis or third-seeded Texas A&M is waiting, but the Buckeyes will be fresh as daisies. So be it. It's good to be a No. 1 seed.

3. Who seeded this thing anyway? By and large, the selection committee did a pretty good job, which is to say the selection committee didn't do many things that I disagree with. But the seedings for this regional are bizarre. Virginia, which lost 10 games overall including its last two games to non-tourney teams Wake Forest and North Carolina State ... as high as a No. 4 seed? And Nevada, which went 27-4, is all the way down at No. 7? Flip-flop those teams for sure. I'm thinking the bracket that was released has those seeds as typos. Won't that be embarrassing when the selection committee has to apologize and tell Virginia you're not playing Albany in the first round -- you're playing Creighton?

East Regional picks

Who will win: Ohio State will cruise to the regional final but get run into oblivion by a more athletic, deeper Memphis team that can put Joey Dorsey on Greg Oden. Dorsey's no Oden, but he's no slouch. And OSU can't stop Memphis from running.

Dark-horse pick: Nevada has some really nice pieces this season, much more than a year ago when it was Nick Fazekas or bust. Fazekas is still around and still a superstar, but Ramon Sessions and Marcelus Kemp are ferocious as well.

Most likely upset: No. 11-seeded Stanford over sixth-seeded Louisville, and that's no upset. Louisville has all kinds of talent, but they're a bunch of headcases, and the mentally tough Cardinal will give them a lobotomy.