We are less than 24 hours away from the men’s draft so I thought I’d try to pick where everyone will go. I did the same thing last year and got some right so we’ll see how I do this year.

Usually you figure that the first 15 to 20 teams will try to find a regional where they think they can win the whole thing but then the rest are making picks off based who else is in the regional so they can try to pick up at least one quality win. By the time you get to the bottom of the barrel you have to what’s left which usually are the toughest spots that everyone else is avoiding.

Here are the regional hosts with a notation about whether the matches will be played indoors or outdoors along with who the hosts will have to replace next season:

1. UCLA (outdoors) – most likely will have to replace #1 and #4 (McDonald/Sell)
2. TCU (outdoors) – if Norrie and Rybakov return everyone will be back
3. Ohio State – replace #2 and #4 (Diaz/Steinbach)
4. North Carolina – most likely will have to replace #1 and #3 (Schnur/Clark)
5. Oklahoma – replace #1 and #2 (Harris/Alvarez)
6. Georgia – replace #1 and #6 (Smith/Wood); replace #1 doubles (Smith/Wagland)
7. Wake Forest – replace #3 and #4 (Ho/Bogaerts)
8. Cal (outdoors) – replace #5 (Wikberg)
9. Florida (outdoors) – replace #1 and #5 (Hidalgo/Watson)
10. Texas Tech (outdoors) – replace #1 and #2 (Soares/Dojas)
11. USC (outdoors) – replace #1 (de Vroome)
12. Oklahoma State – return everyone
13. Texas A&M (outdoors) – replace #2, #4, #5 Withrow (Vinsant/Adams/Withrow)
14. Northwestern – replace #4 (Baev)
15. Texas – replace #5 (Riechmann)

South Florida will be up first and I originally thought they might choose Texas Tech because Tech has to replace its top two but then I figured it’d probably be more convenient to go up to Florida. Florida has to replace a pair of starters plus USF would be much more familiar with the court conditions and of course travel would be a piece of cake compared to having to get to Lubbock. South Florida has to replace Roberto Cid, Dominic Cotrone, and Ignacio Gonzalez-Muniz so it’s going to be tough for them regardless of where they go.

Illinois will have an interesting selection because they can go anywhere but I think they’ll stay close to home and go up to Evanston to play in the Northwestern regional. However I wouldn’t be surprised if they chose the Oklahoma, Texas Tech, or Texas A&M regionals because those are the teams that have to replace a lot of top-end talent.

I think Mississippi State definitely chooses an outdoors location with Texas A&M and Texas Tech the likeliest landing spots.

Arkansas is probably just as comfortable outside as they are inside so they have plenty of options to choose from but I think they go to Oklahoma to try and beat the Sooners for the second year in a row.

I have the Oklahoma State regional filling up first mainly based off SMU choosing to go there as a #2 seed. The reason I think SMU would go there as #2 seed is because they shutout Oklahoma State in Stillwater last season. I think Kentucky would like its chances against SMU so they’d follow suit and then Tulsa would think they’d have a fighting chance against Oklahoma State so they’d go there as the #4 seed. Of course if SMU goes elsewhere then the rest of those might choose another spot.

I think Ohio State fills up last because they are the best indoor team that will be hosting a regional indoors.

Texas may have slid in as the last regional host but they should be very tough next year with five returning starters plus they’ll add two top-notch recruits (Yuya Ito 14.95 UTR & Christian Sigsgaard UTR 14.12).

There is also a tab below that has the my projections in grid format.

All the picks will show up on the ITA’s page as they come in and I’ll have a recap tomorrow afternoon.

So what’s everyone else think – which regional will fill up first and last?