People with a boner to actually travel to watch 1st round NCAA games 11-16 seeds, are not suddenly woo'd to go only because said game which tips in 48 hours on a Tuesday is in a city with 'entertainment.' I'd say mix it up, go to cities that want the event and will act like hosts and make it fun for the hard core attendees. huge cities won't give two shits for this. *
As ELA said, if you can't find your own attractions in any city for a quick trip you aren't trying. I've been to all 50 states (yeah, not every 'city') but there are very few places I've been to that i found to be irredeemable.
*I wouldn't pay to attend these 'first 18/12/whatever' no matter where they are being played, maybe rare exception being Hinkle Fieldhouse, because it is 10 miles from my house.
as an aside, one of 'my' industry's big events made a catastrophic decision to have its event in Vegas, even in March with 'perfect' weather. Vegas$$$ historically it was in So Fla. in Feb/Mar. Our industry is about 75% eastern time zone....in a compliance/regulated business. It's been a 90% 'WTF kind of decision was this?' We don't do Vegas in our biz.... fly us all out here, burn all that travel time. The event is basically folding now.