The fact that the state of Ohio has four teams in the tournament (from four conferences no less) has gotten a lot of attention. But what hasn't gotten as much is the overall geographic distribution of teams.
Eight are Midwestern teams. Most people wouldn't count Kentucky as a Midwestern state, but in basketball terms, it's part of a regional culture along with Indiana and Ohio and arguably other states. There is a term for this: Kentuckiana. In that sense, you can make it ten.
What's really striking is that when you go east of Louisville and North of the Triangle, the only team in the field from that rather significant region of the U.S. is Syracuse. The Big East has four teams, but of the four, three are from the Midwest - assuming you count Louisville as Midwestern for basketball purposes.
- Cincinnati
- Ohio State
- Ohio
- Xavier
- Wisconsin
- Marquette
- Michigan State
- Indiana
- Kentucky
- Louisville
- UNC
- NC State
- Baylor
- Florida
- Syracuse
- Kansas
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