The best Mizzou women’s basketball team in years could be blocked from NCAA games in KC

If the Missouri women’s basketball team reaches the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 for the first time since 2000, its reward could be to play almost 1,700 miles away from Mizzou Arena.

The NCAA Tournament selection committee’s final top-16 seed reveal came out Monday evening and included regional assignments. Should Missouri’s assignment hold after conference tournaments, the Tigers, the projected No. 11 overall seed, would be in the No. 3 seed in the Spokane, Wash., Regional — even though the Sprint Center in Kansas City is one of the other three regional sites for Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games.

“When you see Mizzou go that far away, it’s not helping us move any tickets,” Kansas City Sports Commission president and CEO Kathy Nelson said Tuesday.

Missouri would have to win in the first two rounds of the tournament — held at MU if Mizzou remains a top-16 overall seed — to reach a regional site, but Nelson is looking ahead. She said Kansas City is “prepared to welcome anyone and everyone, but when we think about how we are going to move tickets, obviously a local school is somewhat important to that.”

For now, though, Nelson does not figure to get one. The top four seeds in the Kansas City Regional, according to Monday’s reveal, will be Mississippi State, Texas, UCLA and Maryland.

What’s the reasoning for not having MU play at the Sprint Center?

Louisville, the No. 3 overall seed, would be placed in the Lexington, Ky., Regional because that site is the closest of the four for the Cardinals. With the No. 1 seed in that regional taken, Kansas City would be the next closest regional site for No. 2 overall seed Mississippi State — though the Sprint Center is about 10 hours from the Bulldogs’ campus.

The selection committee’s chair, Rhonda Bennett, said the committee tries not to put two teams from the same conference as top four seeds in the same regional. So with Mississippi State in Kansas City, Mizzou would need to go elsewhere.

“It doesn’t always work to be able to do it exactly in regional proximity,” Bennett said.

Five SEC teams are projected top 16 overall seeds, which would make it necessary to place two of those teams in at least one regional. Monday’s reveal had Missouri as a No. 3 seed and Georgia as the No. 4 seed in Spokane.

Why does Missouri end up sharing a regional with another top-four seed from the SEC? Bennett said the committee can only make sure the first four SEC teams among the top 16 seeds — No. 2 Mississippi State, No. 7 South Carolina, No. 11 Missouri and No. 12 Tennessee — are not in the same regional as one another. Georgia, the No. 15 overall seed, is the last SEC school of the current top 16 seeds.

Mizzou coach Robin Pingeton said she attended a mock selection workshop in Chicago this past fall “blown away by just the process and number crunching and time that it takes to really break down, not only who’s in, but also the bracketing.”

“I just keep hoping and praying that somehow we can host and end up in the Kansas City region,” Pingeton said. “I know there’s a lot that goes into it.”

Bennett would not speculate on what would have to happen for MU to play in the Kansas City Regional, but Louisville would probably need to lose its No. 1 seed. That could allow Mississippi State to go to Lexington, which is about eight hours from Starkville.

That’s unlikely to happen, though. Louisville does not play another ranked team during the regular season.

“I get their strategy,” Nelson said. “I can kind of appreciate that. But for somebody selling tickets, it’s a little … frustrating is probably the word.”

Kansas City is currently organizing its bid to host the Women’s Final Four in either 2023 or 2024, and Missouri would serve as the event’s host school. According to Nelson, without strong attendance for this year’s NCAA regional games, Kansas City would have to center more of its bid around the success of the recent NCAA women’s volleyball championship at the Sprint Center. That event drew record crowds.

“All these other cities that are competing against us for a Final Four that aren’t hosting a regional don’t have to worry about how many tickets they’re moving or not moving,” Nelson said.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Nelson was not sure how many tickets had already been sold for this year’s tournament games at the Sprint Center. The Sweet 16 games are scheduled for 6 and 8:30 p.m. on Friday, March 23 and the regional championship is 6:30 p.m. Sunday, March 25.

“But I can tell you there are plenty available,” she said.

Projected NCAA Tournament seeds

Here are the regional assignments for the projected top 16 seeds, according to the NCAA Tournament selection committee’s final seeding reveal of the regular season:

This story was originally published February 20, 2018 at 2:17 PM with the headline "The best Mizzou women’s basketball team in years could be blocked from NCAA games in KC."