If it's Saturday, we must be in Pittsburgh, or is it Portland?

There are very few things I dislike about the NCAA basketball tournaments. (Yes, that's supposed to be plural. I watch the men and women.)

I detest the pods, and not just because it lets the tournament committee put Duke and North Carolina is a home-state subregional every year ... although I also hate that, even if it didn't help Duke much last night. The regions should be regional, and the pods place convenience over competition. Seth Davis basically admitted as such after the men's tournament brakcets were released.

@sethdavishoops If you look at the seed list and the bracket you realize the S curve doesn't really exist. It's all about geography.

They should just call the men's First Four games what they are -- play-in games, and dispense with the "round of 64" and "second-round" nonsense. It's not fooling anybody. I also rather the First Four games be all at-large teams, but it beats expanding the tournament to 96, 128 or everybody.

But as I'm watching the women's tournament, where it's pretty clear where each game is, I'm reminded that I hate that men's games are played on generic courts. Other than the fact that one is a seminal moment in tournament history and the other was just another first-round game ... oops, round of 64 ... looking at the difference between these two clips, it's hard to believe they're in the same building, The Pit in Albuquerque.



Combine that with the names of some of the arenas -- just in case you were wondering, the Consol Energy Center is in Pittsburgh, the Nationwide Arena is in Columbus, the Bridgestone Arena is in Nashville and CenturyLink Center is in Omaha -- all the games could be in Anywhere, USA. It's sterile, and sucks some of the flavor out of the event.