Geno Re:Vanderbilt
The Commodores were a 1-seed in the first bracket reveal back in February but suffered a bad loss at Georgia, then got blown out by Ole Miss in the SEC Tournament. Since two top-four seeds from the same conference can’t occupy the same region, Vanderbilt had to be placed with either UConn or UCLA. The Commodores ultimately slipped behind LSU, which sent them to the Huskies’ quadrant.
That’s the official explanation, at least. Auriemma isn’t quite so convinced.
“I haven't looked at it close enough, but the way it was explained to me, that would be like they are the number eight team in the country. I find that hard to believe. I find that hard to believe,” he said. “Hopefully they were put there because that's where they deserve to be, not because of some ulterior motive… That would be disrespectful to Vanderbilt and to Shea.”