11/23/24
March 22, 2007
No Palace For These Cinderellas: In the NCAA tournament, where you stand determines where you sleep at night: to the best teams go the best hotels. [via Slate]
posted by Amateur to basketball at 02:04 PM - 7 comments
Why don't they just do it randomly? Why do it by seeding?
posted by bperk at 02:46 PM on March 22, 2007
I think it makes some sense. It is like another reward to go with a higher seed. Plus, I don't think it makes much sense to put a #16 seed up in a nice hotel when they're almost definitely going to be out of the tournament after their first game. However, I think the NCAA needs to be a bit better about what hotels the lowest seeds are staying in.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 05:21 PM on March 22, 2007
crash, I've never met hotel pr0n I didn't like. Other than that, I agree. You have to go to a really swank place before it makes much of a difference. And it's probably tougher to get in trouble at the Comfort Inn in an industrial park than a Marriott downtown. Only downside: no Book of Mormon. That gets me in the mood. For sleep.
posted by yerfatma at 06:33 PM on March 22, 2007
I am 40= years old and have never once thought about any hotels involved in the NCAA tourney. Now that I know about the hotel assignments, I think it sucks. Why not just take the best two or three hotels and put all the teams up in them? I doubt the hotels would complain about having full occupancy. It would really be bad to have to sleep on a shitty bed.
posted by danjel at 06:53 PM on March 22, 2007
C'mon, it's just the picks of the game. Honestly, most of these guys will never see this luxury again. Was there once, now Super 8 is cool, as long as there's a bar in the area. Let the kids have their time...they'll find the "real world" soon enough!
posted by wolfdad at 09:00 PM on March 22, 2007
I think a quality coach could use a crappy hotel as motivation. Underdogs always have a mental edge if they get fired up enough about their underdog status. Just take a bunch of pictures of the swanky hotel where the favorites are staying and plaster 'em up when the team is meeting at the No-Tell Motel where they've been quartered. Coaching genius!
posted by Venicemenace at 10:34 AM on March 23, 2007
Maybe I'm just not very picky, but I've stayed in the nice downtown Marriott hotels, and I've stayed in Super 8 motels, and I've stayed in Mom and Pop motels in the middle of nowhere and frankly I don't see a lot of difference other than room size and how recently the decor was changed. At least not enough to justify a couple hundred dollars a night difference. I mean, I sleep just as well in any of them (which is to say not very well at all). I've never met a hotel bed I liked.