UConn Coach Geno Auriemma Blasts NCAA Tournament Regional Format

That travel schedule is even tighter for whoever emerges out of Spokane Regional 4.

The Spokane Regional 1 winner — either UCLA, Ole Miss, LSU or NC State — will be determined on Sunday night. 

They’ll then fly to Tampa on Monday and have three days to prepare for Friday’s Final Four matchup. 

The winner from Spokane Regional 4 — USC, Kansas State, UConn or Oklahoma — will punch their ticket to the Final Four and have one less day to get ready for the semifinal. 

“God bless whoever wins Monday night, okay,” Auriemma said. “And they have got to fly cross country, which is all day Tuesday, then they have two days, Wednesday and Thursday, to play the biggest game of their life.

“The guys, who don't know s— about s— according to a lot of women's basketball people, they finish Sunday and then they have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and they play Saturday. But there's a lot of people in the women's basketball community that think they're smarter than that.”

Moving to the “Super Regional” format was a move designed to pack more fans into half the sites, hopefully increasing the profits for the tournament. 

Next year, Oklahoma could benefit. 

If the Sooners are able to earn a favorable seed and battle to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, one of the Super Regional sites will be in Fort Worth, TX.

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But for now, both OU and UConn will have to hope fans travel over halfway across the country (or entirely across the country in UConn’s case) to take in any Sweet Sixteen or Elite Eight action. 

Doubling the teams at each site also alters the off-day practice schedules for teams, too. Both the Sooners and the Huskies had to arrive to the arena early on Friday to make way for the shoot arounds for the pair of contests that will play on Friday night between LSU and NC State and UCLA and Ole Miss. 

“In a normal world, run by normal people, there would only be four teams here,” Auriemma said. “Which means there would be no games today, the games would be tomorrow. Which means we wouldn't have to get up at 6 a.m. to have an 8 o'clock practice here this morning for an hour. Which means (Saturday) we wouldn't have to get up at 5 a.m. to have a 7:30 shoot around for half an hour. Takes us longer to get through security than to actually be on the court.”

Oklahoma and UConn will meet at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday. The winner will take on the survivor of Saturday’s late game between USC and Kansas State on Monday night for the right to advance to the Final Four. 

“Whoever came up with this super regional stuff — and I know who they are — ruined the game.” Auriemma said. “They did. They ruined the game. Half the country has no chance to get to a game in person. But you're making billions off of TV. Well, actually you're not. That would be the men's tournament. So, yeah there's a lot of issues that they need to fix. And again, we could get our ass beat tomorrow and that won't change my feelings.”