The hype on that game would be great but I don't see that ever coming true. They would never place an 8 seed from the East in the East. I can see them placing a UT or Cal team in the East bracket. Also the committee would never place 3 teams out of 5 total teams from the same conference (AAC) in the same bracket. Also 2 teams in the same bracket out of 4 total teams. Unless they were stuck. I think they just want the excitement to start occurring.
1. That is false. In fact with 8/9, pod location is what matters not region. They will try to place 8/9 seeds as close to possible as the pod location without giving a homecourt advantage to an 8/9 (i.e. a team that is fairly close to that location). And even then that has been not adhered to (remember when 3 seed Pitt had to play 6 seed Wisconsin, in Wisconsin) Of course its often difficult to accomplish in order to observe other bracket rules. But if UConn is an 8 seed the committee will absolutely try to place them in Buffalo. UConn is closest to that pod and would not have a homecourt advantage over the #1 seed in the second round.
2. Good catch. That was a bracketing "preference" error by Lunardi, although technically no longer against the rules.. The old rule was no teams from the same conference could meet until the round of 8. When mega conferences arose, they changed the rule because it could not work with a conference with 9 teams in. Now conference opponents cannot play until the round of 32. But the committee has stated its preference to maintain the round of 8 rule, for conferences with 8 teams or less in the tourney. They have never veered from this preference in the past 5 years, so I have no clue why Lunardi thinks they will change it for a 5 bid conference.
3. I suspect that is incorrect. I doubt special effort is made to keep the 4th team in a conference away from the top 3 teams. By rule, they must only keep the top 3 teams separate.
EDIT - Poppy is correct as well. 2 of the top 3 teams from the ACC are in the East which is a clear bracket violation. So Lunardi misapplied the most basic rule, and than did something the committee would never do as well. Butchered region.
I still think UConn will be placed in with Syracuse, as long as Memphis stays above UConn in the seed line. If UConn is the 3rd team from the AAC, it would be more difficult. If they are the 4th team it should be much easier.