When the UA volleyball team plays Wisconsin tomorrow in College Station, Texas, the Wildcats figure to be a tough team to face, because they're mad at the NCAA tournament selection committee.
Then again, it seems like everyone has that going for them.
The bracket contains no West Coast teams in one of the regions despite 21 West Coast teams appearing in the tournament, and only one Pacific 10 Conference team on one side of the entire bracket. Yet, there are three Pac-10 teams in one region, making it seem the committee is going out of its way to prevent an all-West Coast Final Four.
"I was a little frustrated with the bracket for lots of different reasons," said UA head coach Dave Rubio. "Having 16 teams from the West Coast, all on one side of the bracket, and only three from the other, it frustrates me.
"The other part of it is, the teams that are seeded one through 16, based on what the criteria I understand was supposed to be used, doesn't seem to be applied this year," Rubio added.
Rubio also took issue with so many Pac-10 teams bunched together. The odds are very stacked against an all-Pac-10 championship match, as only No. 10 seed California is on one side of the bracket.
"That seems to happen every single year: The committee doesn't want too many Pac-10 teams in the Final Four," Rubio said. "They're afraid it's going to be an all-Pac-10 Final Four, and I don't think that's the way it should be. There's clearly some bias."
Last year, the Conference of Champions had eight teams invited to the tournament (six this year), including four teams in the Elite Eight and two in the title match. The last two national champions are from the Pac-10.
"The brackets are just real messed up (and) weird," said sophomore outside hitter Jennifer Abernathy. "I don't think anybody thought all the west coast teams would be in one (bracket), and Florida has an easy bracket, and our bracket's pretty tough, so I think everything's just real crazy and mixed up."
Analysts have said that No. 3 seed Florida (31-1) seems to have the easiest route to the Final Four, as the Gators' region has no west coast teams, and they don't really have a "road" to the Final Four at all - they need not leave campus the first four rounds.
"The reality is the fourth place team or the fifth place team in our conference could definitely get to the Final Four and have a shot at winning the championship, and I think the committee knows that, and so they structure it where we're going to have to play a Pac-10 team to get to the Final Four so one of us isn't going," Rubio said.
Analysts have also said that No. 1 seed USC (29-0), which would have to travel considerably to get to he Final Four and has a tougher overall route than the other top seeds in terms of travel and opponents.
Rubio said the Wildcats' region is by far the toughest, which includes the Women of Troy, who would have to travel to Lincoln, Neb. for the Regionals instead of nearby Long Beach, Calif.
"The interesting thing is, they didn't play favorites," Rubio said of the selection committee. "I'm complaining about it for us, but SC's got to be just as bothered by everything because they didn't project USC to be number one.
They're sending them to Nebraska. I don't think that's fair. They should have sent them to Long Beach State. To me, that just doesn't make sense," he added.
Nebraska isn't happy with its road, either, having to travel to Michigan State despite being the ninth seed although the seeds almost always host in the first two rounds.
The Lincoln Journal Star reported that the Huskers would lose $104,700 because of the trip. Rubio said that didn't make any sense to him, either.
Interestingly, with this year being the first for preset regional sites, there could be a situation in which Nebraska gets knocked out by the host Spartans, losers of their last two matches, but three Pac-10 teams would have to travel to the Huskers' arena.
"Obviously they're not going to have as good a crowd if Nebraska's not in it, (so) why would people in Nebraska want to go?" Rubio rhetorically asked.
Rubio also wondered what criteria the committee used to pick the teams traveling to the site of the host 16 seed.
Arizona has a 5-6 record against top 11 teams and went 7-11 against the tournament field.
"It's frustrating to me that for several years now the committee said 'it's strength of schedule, it's beating ranked teams, have significant wins and playing against good people, and that determines your seed,'" Rubio said. "You take a look at some of seeds and I want to know what teams they beat to get those seeds."
For example, No. 24 Texas A&M (21-9), the No. 16 seed and host of the UA's sub regional, is ranked lower than the Wildcats, beat only two teams currently ranked and has lost four of its last eight.
"I can never predict the NCAA tournament pairings," said Wisconsin head coach Pete Waite to the Badgers' official athletic Web site. "It's hard to understand why some people host."
Rubio said that, other than USC and a few other teams, no one has more quality wins than the UA.
"I have a lot of questions for the committee this year to try and understand the rational behind how they set the bracket up," he said.
Rubio found many things wrong with the bracket that he intends to bring up to the committee.
"No one's going to be happy with the bracket," Rubio said. "I don't care how far you think you're going to be, and I understand that this particular year, there's just so many glaring areas that there needs to be some questions asked (about) why certain teams were put there."