2021 NCAA Tournament Map

[pfrduke]

Once again, the only matchup of land-adjacent teams was won by the lower seed. There are two such matchups tomorrow, although they're only second-degree adjacent (KU-USC; Alabama-Maryland).

[pfrduke]

Sweet 16 map below.

[pfrduke]

Halfway through the Sweet 16

[budwom]

Houston and Baylor on my state, what a disgrace!

[pfrduke]

The Elite 8 features major western and southwestern land grabs of areas east of Ann Arbor. And the sad departure of the pantsless duck.

[Kedsy]

The Elite 8 features major western and southwestern land grabs of areas east of Ann Arbor. And the sad departure of the pantsless duck.

How is Creighton still holding Hawaii?

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

How is Creighton still holding Hawaii?

Shhhhhh...

[brevity]

How is Creighton still holding Hawaii?

Good question. Greg McDermott must own a few pl—

Shhhhhh...

— right, never mind.

[pfrduke]

How is Creighton still holding Hawaii?

Because I changed the color but forgot to change the logo.

Fixed below:

[MarkD83]

So UCLA owns more coast-line in New England than it does in California even though it is less than a mile from the Pacific.

[JasonEvans]

How do we tell where Michigan territory ends and USC territory begins?

[pfrduke]

How do we tell where Michigan territory ends and USC territory begins?

They're very slightly different yellows. But the issue here is that USC's scarlet and Arkansas's brick red are exactly the same color, so they would be even harder to delineate between (Michigan's blue is also pretty close to Gonzaga's blue). I could have made Arkansas black, USC scarlet, and Michigan yellow, but it was hard to predict in advance that all of them would reach the Elite 8 - if those three teams happen to make the final four, I'll probably make the color swap.

Earlier maps will help show where the boundary lines are - USC has taken Oregon, VCU, Kansas, Drake, Wichita State, Eastern Washington, Iowa, and Grand Canyon in addition to its original territory; Michigan has taken over Colorado, Florida State, UNC Greensboro, Georgetown, LSU, Texas Southern, Mount St. Mary's, and St. Bonaventure. So the borders that are tough to delineate are between Colorado and Grand Canyon (to the SW) and Wichita State (to the E) and between Georgetown and VCU.

[camion]

Because I changed the color but forgot to change the logo.

Fixed below:

Can you do one scaled by population like we sometimes had in the election thread.?

Asking for a friend who lives in NY.

[pfrduke]

Down to 6 (with SC's color changed to scarlet to better contrast with Michigan Maize)

[pfrduke]

Final Four Map. The winner of Gonzaga-UCLA will carry much more land into the final than the winner of Baylor-Houston.

[brevity]

3. North Carolina is being attacked by Gonzaga on both sides (the coast via Norfolk State and the mountains via Appalachian State). But that's not the interesting thing. Because most of the state is covered by Gonzaga (West Regional), Florida State (East Regional), Wisconsin (South Regional), and Oregon State and Rutgers (both Midwest Regional), each Final Four team will have a foothold in the state, and will be battling for nothing less than the state's soul.

Now you can see what I was talking about. All four remaining teams lay claim to parts of North Carolina (Houston has the smallest presence, with 8 counties at the western tip). Now that the map is simpler and the color contrast is clearer, I can say the same of a few other states:

Ohio (pretty good distribution; UCLA has about 10 counties in the Northwest)
Texas (Gonzaga has two tiny counties in the Northeast panhandle)
Virginia (UCLA has one county at the NC border, plus about 7 more adjacent to DC)
West Virginia (UCLA has 4 counties in its panhandle)

Meanwhile, Arizona, Mississippi, and Maine are the three largest states wholly conquered by one team. This was true of Arizona (Grand Canyon) and Maine (Hartford) when the tournament started. The Michigan-UCLA winner united Mississippi, which was originally split into LSU and Alabama factions.

[pfrduke]

Going into the final game, Gonzaga holds most of the land west of the Mississippi and Baylor holds most of the land East (although the Zags could go from the San Juan islands to the gulf coast southeast of Tallahassee without crossing into enemy territory). The smallest remaining isolated territories for each team are Baylor's three Southern California counties and Gonzaga's stronghold in the Ohio-WVA borderlands. It all goes one color tonight!

[Phredd3]

Going into the final game, Gonzaga holds most of the land west of the Mississippi and Baylor holds most of the land East (although the Zags could go from the Arctic Sea coast to the gulf coast southeast of Tallahassee without crossing into enemy territory). The smallest remaining isolated territories for each team are Baylor's three Southern California counties and Gonzaga's stronghold in the Ohio-WVA borderlands. It all goes one color tonight!

FIFY.

[pfrduke]

It's a really nice shade of green:

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

It's a really nice shade of green:

I like the closure.