Room Service: Top Seeds Stay In Nicer Hotels During NCAAs

Higher Seeds Like UCLA Posting Up At Nicer Hotels Than Lower Seeds

The NCAA assigned the higher-seeded teams in the men’s basketball tournament the “most prestigious hotels” in the host cities, while the “small-conference underdogs sometimes settled for small historic hotels or airport area chains,” according to a front-page piece by Eli Saslow of the WASHINGTON POST. In Sacramento this weekend, West region No. 2 UCLA stayed at a Sheraton, while Weber State, a No. 15 seed, was at a Holiday Inn. In Winston-Salem, East region No. 2 Georgetown stayed at a Marriott, while No. 15 seed Belmont “stayed at a small, historic hotel with old, 19-inch televisions.” Brad Korn, assistant coach for West region No. 4 Southern Illinois, which was a No. 11 seed last year, said, “It’s nice now to know how the other half lives. The elevators work, the showers are nice, the restaurant isn’t going to make you sick. ... In the past, we’ve had some disasters.” NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship Dir L.J. Wright: “In a perfect world, everything would be exactly the same for every team, but that’s impossible. Every property is going to be a little bit different, and we can’t assign eight teams to the same hotel. There can be hits and misses.” NCAA officials said that teams “are not required to stay at their assigned hotels, ... but switching requires a process so complicated it sometimes strikes players and coaches as impossible” (WASHINGTON POST, 3/18).