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Why Indiana should be rooting for Louisville this week

St John's v Louisville

LOUISVILLE, KY - FEBRUARY 14: Rick Pitino the head coach of the Louisville Cardinals gives instructions to Peyton Siva #3 during the game against the St. John’s Red Storm at KFC YUM! Center on February 14, 2013 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

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For me, perhaps the most interesting part of attending the mock selection committee back in February was learning that the idea of there being an “S-Curve” used to slot teams into specific seeds is simply not true.

There is no S-Curve.

Instead, what the committee uses is a seed list which is exactly what it sounds like: a complete ranking of every single team in the tournament, 1-68. Nos. 1-4 are the 1-seeds, 5-8 are the 2-seeds, etc. And while the general thinking has always been that the best No. 1 seed gets paired up with the lowest No. 2 seed, that’s not the case either. The bracketing for the top four seed lines has everything to do with proximity to the location of the Regional Finals.

And that could end up being bad news for Indiana, who may want to root heavily for Louisville to win the Big East tournament.

As of today, our Dave Ommen has Louisville and Indiana both sitting pretty as No. 1 seeds, with Indiana being considered the higher No. 1 seed and thus getting slotted into the Midwest region, where the Sweet 16 and the Elite 8 are to be played in Indianapolis. That will essentially be a home game for the Hoosiers.

Georgetown, however, is a No. 2 seed. Hypothetically speaking, let’s say that Georgetown ends up beating Louisville in the Big East title game, and the rest of the conference tournaments happen to play out such that the Hoyas jump up past the Cardinals for the fourth No. 1 seed while Louisville becomes the first No. 2 seed. If that were to happen, Louisville would be sent to Indianapolis as well, where, if chalk holds, they will be playing the Hoosiers in Lucas Oil Stadium for the right to play in the Final Four.

Louisville is an hour and 45 minutes from Indianapolis. Their fan base may not be as big as Kentucky’s, but they are just as passionate and willing to travel just as far.

Which would mean that the Hoosiers, who could very well end up being the No. 1 overall seed, may be forced to play Louisville -- a preseason top two team that has looked every bit the part of a national title contender all season with the exception of one three-game losing streak -- in a game where their home court advantage would be drastically diminished. You better believe Cardinal fans would be showing up in droves for that game.

So think about that. The preseason top two teams, two favorites to win the national title, playing for the right to go to the Final Four.

That would qualify as a tough break.

You can find Rob on twitter @RobDauster.