Geography says the winner of the West Region of the NCAA Tournament will have the shortest route to travel to the Final Four.
Nine top-25 teams in one region says that road to San Jose will be the longest route in the Tournament.
Led by four-time defending Sun Belt Conference champion and three-time national champion Louisiana Tech, the West has quickly been tabbed the most difficult region in the 1999 NCAA tournament.
"We do an average of all of our regions using the RPI ranking," Selection Committee Chair Bernadette V. McGlade said of the seeming overload in the West. "We try to keep those totals within a similar margin for each of the four regions.
"We felt the West measured out well against the other brackets. When we total our RPI, it is not based on the national polls and some of the info that the public sees all the time."
Just how difficult is the West?
The No. 7 seed, Southwest Missouri State has a Final Four under its belt this decade. Two teams, No. 1 Louisiana Tech and No. 10 California Santa Barbara, are riding win streaks over 20 games. And No. 9 Virginia hasn't left the Coaches poll top 25-ever.
But even with all the contenders between his team and a shot at the Lady Techsters first title of the decade, head coach Leon Barmore is happy with where his team is.
"We expected to be a No. 1 seed and put in the West region," Barmore said. "The only regret I have is that it is so far for our loyal fans to go and see us play. [But] I'm pleased with the basketball team I have now. I think we have one of the most explosive teams we ever had here at Tech."
And when the coach of the winningest team in the history of college basketball, men's or women's, says that, it translates to bad news for the rest of the West.
While the Lady Techsters will remain on the bayou in Ruston, La., for the opening two rounds of the tournament, hosting Central Florida in the first round and Penn State and Virginia in the No. 8 vs. 9 game, the real drama of the West will be played out in Denver.
No. 2 Colorado State carried one of the nation's longest winning streaks into the WAC tournament, where it was promptly defeated by Southern Methodist for the league title. But a 19-game run and a No. 7 ranking has done its share to draw the eyes of the women's basketball world to Fort Collins, Color.
And the eyes of head coach Tom Collen are now squarely on possible second-round opponent, No. 24 Southwest Missouri State, seeded seventh in the region.
A traditional tournament team, the Bears went 23-6 on the season although they stumbled in the finals of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament.
"Southwest Missouri had a good tradition," Collen told the Denver Post. "They've been to the Final Four. It would be ironic if we played them because they have been our role model for this program."
But Southwest Missouri may not survive long enough to take on the Rams. First-round opponent UCSB has the greatest disparity between seed and rank in the polls of any team in the draw. The No. 18 Gauchos (26-3), actually ranked ahead of the Bears, are nevertheless the No. 10 team in the region.
With Louisiana State-one of two teams to beat defending champion Tennessee-as a No. 4 seed, there's little doubt the road to the Final Four is going to have an early stop for a host of perennial contenders.
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