Women's Brackets:  you Hokies in Gainesville, Florida are in luck, because Atlantic 10 champion Virginia Tech is the #11 seed in the West Region, and the Hokies will go up against #6 Wisconsin in the O'Connell Center in Gainesville.  I believe the game is on March 13th, although the graphics that were shown on the selection show weren't clear about what games were on what days.

An 11 seed is a pretty good seed to get.  If the Hokies win, they'll face the winner of #3 Florida and #14 Montana in the second round, which means that if the Hokies play well, they can make the Sweet 16 without having to face a #1 or #2 seed.  If Tech is able to get past Wisconsin, though, the second round matchup against Florida looms large, because SEC women's basketball is some of the best around.

One quirk I noticed about the pairings is that GW, whom the Hokies knocked off in the semifinals of the A-10 tournament, wound up as a #10 seed in the East.  UMass, who made the A-10 final against the Hokies, was only a #13 seed in the West.  Tech, GW, and UMass all had comparable records and regular season conference standings.

Men's Brackets:  for all the talk of the Atlantic-10 possibly having six teams in this year's NCAA tournament, it didn't materialize.  As I expected, the Dayton Flyers were left out in the cold, despite records of 20-11 overall and 11-5 in the conference.  The Flyers were hurt by losses to Cleveland State and Virginia Tech late in the season, and the nail in the coffin was probably the fact that they didn't make the final four of the A-10 tournament, bowing out in the second round.

The Atlantic 10 teams that did make it fell into the following brackets and seeds:

• East Region:  Xavier, #6 seed
• West Region:  Temple #7 seed
• MidWest Region:  Rhode Island, #8 seed
• South Region:  UMass #7 seed, GW #9 seed

Five teams (and a near-sixth) is an impressive showing in a twelve-team league.   There is no question that the Atlantic 10 is a tough league.  There is also no question that the league's top teams are powers:  Xavier, UMass, Temple, are nationally-recognized programs, and Hokie fans have come to know that Rhode Island and GW are good year in and year out.

It's the rest of the league that needs to get its act together.  Perennial doormats Fordham and La Salle need to put competitive teams on the floor.  That will probably never happen at Fordham, but La Salle beat Tech twice this year, refurbished their on-campus arena, and is rumored to have some good players waiting in the wings.   Meanwhile, Duquesne is sliding backwards, going only 11-19 this year and facing graduation of three of their best players, with no young talent ready to take over.

Virginia Tech and St. Joseph's, NCAA teams in 1996 and 1997, respectively, need to get back up off the mat.  The Hawks made the Sweet 16 last year but collapsed to an 11-17 finish this year, including a terrible 3-13 record in the Atlantic 10.  We all know what went down in Blacksburg this year, but most people associated with the program are looking for better times in the coming years.

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