Nebraska's boys and girls high school Sweet 16 dream matchups

Video: Noah Vedral's highlights 2nd round state
See the Bishop Neumann senior in action during the state tournament.

As March Madness was taking hold around the country with its usual maddening upsets (at least on the men's side of the bracket) and drama, here at MaxPreps we were hard at work crunching numbers and seeding the Cornhusker State's boys and girls basketball teams into their own versions of March Madness.

Since many basketball fans aren't as familiar with the Division I hoops programs as they are with their own high school basketball programs, the goal here is to demonstrate just how wacky the men's and women's basketball tournaments have played out to this point using that familiarity for the fans.

Here is how we set it up. Thirty-seven district champions in Classes A (7), B (6), C1 (6), C2 (6), D1 (6) and D2 (6) were given automatic bids to the tournament. The 31 highest ranked boys basketball programs and 27 highest ranked girls teams that did not win a district basketball title, were then given at-large bids. The boys were allowed four more bids since the men's tournament includes the four play-in contests.

Once each field was set, the 68 boys and 64 girls basketball teams from around Nebraska were seeded according to their ranking in MaxPreps' final Nebraska computer rankings. For example, the schools ranked 1-4 were given the top seeds, Nos. 5-8 the 2-seed, Nos. 9-12 the 3-seed and so on. Then they were placed into Regionals based on their geographical location in the state.

Teams advanced through their bracket identical to the movement of their college counterparts last weekend. For example, in the Men's West Regional No. 11 seed Xavier played its way into this weekend's Sweet 16. Therefore Millard North, the No. 11 seed in the boys West Regional, advanced to the Sweet 16.

The women's tournament does not place teams into East, West, Midwest and South Regionals like the men do. But for the purposes of this post we have chosen to do so. The girls Regionals are laid out correspondent to the men's bracket.

For example, the Women's Bridgeport Regional is located in the upper left hand corner of the bracket. The Men's East Regional is located in the same area of its bracket; therefore, girls basketball teams in the East Regional were advanced through the bracket according to the results in the Bridgeport Regional.

Since 10-seed Oregon upended second-seed Duke in the second round of the women's Bridgeport Regional, girls East Regional No. 10-seed Aurora moved by 2-seed Elkhorn South and into the Sweet 16.

While the Millard North boys were busy knocking out Gothenburg and Kearney in this pretend tournament, the Crete girls were taking care of business against postseason giants Seward and Falls City Sacred Heart. Aurora's girls also pulled a pair of major upsets by ousting Omaha Westside and Elkhorn South and move on to the Sweet 16.

Now let's take a look at how our make-believe brackets are taking shape. To the left of each team is its seed and to the right in parenthesis are the school's record and its final MaxPreps computer ranking. Two wins were tacked onto each school's record to represent the two wins each school would have acquired in advancing to the Sweet 16.


Boys Sweet 16 Matchups
East Regional (New York)
8. Omaha North (18-9, 29th) vs. 4. Platteview (Springfield) (23-5, 13th)
3. Omaha Central (21-6, 12th) vs. 7. Burke (Omaha) (17-9, 27th)

West Regional (San Jose)
1. Aurora (27-2, 4th) vs. 4. Wahoo (24-6, 16th)
11. Millard North (Omaha) (15-10, 41st) vs. 2. Scottsbluff (28-3, 5th)

Midwest Regional (Kansas City)
1. Bishop Neumann (Wahoo) (28-3, 2nd) vs. 4. Omaha South (20-7, 14th)
3. Winnebago (30-3, 11th) vs. 7. Millard West (Omaha) (17-11, 25th)

South Regional (Memphis)
1. Gretna (29-2, 1st) vs. 4. Beatrice (19-6, 15th)
3. Creighton Prep (Omaha) (23-4, 9th) vs. 2. Scotus (Columbus) (26-4, 8th)

Girls Sweet 16 Matchups
East Regional (Bridgeport)
1. Bishop Neumann (Wahoo) (24-4, 2nd) vs. 4. Gretna (20-7, 14th)
3. Louisville (Louisville) (25-3, 12th) vs. 10. Aurora (17-9, 40th)

West Regional (Oklahoma City)
1. Kearney Catholic (Kearney) (31-1, 3rd) vs. 4. St. Cecilia (Hastings) (19-7, 15th)
3. Mitchell (25-2, 9th) vs. 2. Crofton (25-3, 6th)

Midwest Regional (Lexington)
1. Guardian Angels Central Catholic (West Point) (26-2, 4th) vs. 5. Ord (24-6, 18th)
3. Howells-Dodge (Howells) (27-3, 10th) vs. 2. South Sioux City (28-2, 5th)

South Regional (Stockton)
1. Lincoln Christian (Lincoln) (30-2, 1st) vs. 12. Crete (16-11, 45th)
3. Norris (Firth) (21-7, 11th) vs. 2. York (25-4, 8th)