Nebraska boys and girls high school Sweet 16 dream matchups

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As March Madness was taking hold around the country with its usual maddening upsets 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-nine district champions in Classes A (7), B (8), C1 (6), C2 (6), D1 (6) and D2 (6) were given automatic bids to the tournament. The 29 highest ranked boys basketball programs and 25 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 does include 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 South Regional No. 11 seed Loyola, Chicago played its way into this weekend's Sweet 16. Therefore, Centennial, the No. 11 seed in the boys South 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 Albany Regional is located in the upper left hand corner of the bracket. The Men's South Regional is located in the same area of its bracket; therefore, girls basketball teams in the South Regional were advanced through the bracket according to the results in the Albany Regional.

Since 2-seed South Carolina upended 10-seed Virginia in the second round of the women's Albany Regional, girls South Regional No. 2-seed Superior moved by 10-seed Friend and into the Sweet 16.

While the Centennial boys were busy knocking out Crete and Lincoln East in this pretend tournament, the Superior girls were taking care of business against postseason giants Beatrice and Friend. Just like Syracuse, an 11-seed in the Midwest Regional that had to compete in one of the play-in games, Lutheran High Northeast made the Sweet 16 by bumping Riverside (play-in), Logan View/Scribner-Snyder and Gretna. Lutheran High Northeast was awarded the win over Riverside because of a higher MaxPreps ranking.

Girls double-digit seeds Lincoln Northeast and Grand Island Central Catholic, both 11-seeds, pulled a couple of upsets each on their way to the Sweet 16. The Rockets surprised sixth-seed Malcolm and No. 3 seed Falls City Sacred Heart, while GICC belted Ravenna and Lincoln East, the No. 6 and No. 3 seeds in the Spokane Regional respectively.

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
South Regional (Atlanta)
9. Norris (Firth) (16-11, 35th) vs. 5. Bryan (Omaha) (22-6, 18th)
11. Centennial (Utica) (24-4, 45th) vs. 7. Kearney (20-7, 26th)

West Regional (Los Angeles)
9. Sidney (20-8, 33rd) vs. 4. Yutan (25-3, 14th)
3. Aurora (24-5, 9th) vs. 7. Scottsbluff (20-9, 25th)

East Regional (Boston)
1. Creighton Prep (Omaha) (28-1, 2nd) vs. 5. Roncalli Catholic (Omaha) (21-6, 17th)
3. Platteview (Springfield) (26-3, 11th) vs. 2. Omaha Central (26-3, 5th)

Midwest Regional (Omaha)
1. Wahoo (29-2, 4th) vs. 5. Winnebago (24-7, 19th)
11. Lutheran-Northeast (Norfolk) (21-5, 42nd) vs. 2. Ponca (32-1, 6th)

Girls Sweet 16 Matchups
Albany Regional
1. Lincoln Christian (21-5, 4th) vs. 5. Auburn (21-5, 20th)
11. Lincoln Northeast (16-9, 42nd) vs. 2. Superior (28-1, 7th)

Spokane Regional
1. Scotus (Columbus) (22-5, 2nd) vs. 4. Ord (24-1, 13th)
11. Grand Island Central Catholic (Grand Island) (18-8, 43rd) vs. 2. St. Cecilia (Hastings) (23-3, 6th)

Kansas City Regional
1. Omaha Westside (25-2, 1st) vs. 4. Wahoo (23-4, 14th)
3. Millard North (Omaha) (23-3, 10th) vs. 2. Elkhorn (26-3, 8th)

Lexington Regional
1. Millard South (Omaha) (25-3, 3rd) vs. 4. Seward (20-5, 15th)
6. North Bend Central (18-5, 23rd) vs. 2. Bishop Neumann (Wahoo) (21-5, 5th)