Some conferences already have their automatic qualifiers set for the Big Dance, while other tournaments are in progress, but still others will not begin for a few more days. Results of interest so far:

Big 10: Purdue, playing as the 3 seed, beat 9 seed Illinois 58-56 on a buzzer-beater in Indianapolis. Even as the 3 seed, the chances were slim of being selected this year with a conference record of 11-7, and what would have been an overall record of 17-15. The Big 10 had a very down year as two teams (Ohio State and Iowa) tied for the regular season title with records of 13-5 and only Ohio State finished with fewer than ten losses on the year. As of today (3/9), collegerpi.com rates the highest team as Purdue at 34 and that's only because they swept thru the tournament this weekend. Only two other Big 10 teams are likely to get into the NCAAs - Ohio State and Iowa. Minnesota is probably a 50-50 guess right now. Michigan State is probably on the outside looking in.

ACC: North Carolina knocked off Duke in the ACC finals, 86-73, in Greensboro, NC. UNC completed an undefeated conference season at 14-0. Along with UNC, Duke, Maryland, and Virginia are all likely locks for an invitation to Dance. Georgia Tech, Boston College, and Florida State are all on the bubble with .500 conference records, but at least 18 wins amongst them.

C-USA: SMU defeated UTEP, 73-57, in a game of runs that allowed the Mustangs to claim their ticket to the NCAAs. UTEP used an 18-0 run to take a 38-30 lead over SMU, followed by a 17-0 run by SMU to go up 47-38. SMU didn't look back after that as the Miners had no more scoring bursts in them. UTEP had completed an undefeated regular season for the first time in C-USA history, achieved the programs first national ranking ever, and played in their first conference title game (of any conference they belonged to). While having a relatively poor strength of schedule (about 100), UTEP should have done enough this season to make their first ever NCAA tournament and receive a decent seed for their efforts.

SEC: Tennessee beat LSU, 61-55, to avenge their only conference loss of the year in the SEC finals in Nashville. LSU finished as the top seed and was undefeated in conference play this year, while handing UT it's worst conference loss in 23 seasons last month (78-62). The SEC has four locks for the tournament in Tennessee, LSU, Vanderbilt, and Georgia. Auburn and Florida are long-shots. Kentucky finished fifth in the league, but has an overall record of 15-15, which won't get them in.

PAC 10: California and Stanford advanced to the Pac 10 finals in San Jose, CA. Cal beat Arizona State, 65-61, while Stanford knocked off UCLA, 78-45. In the regular season, Stanford won both meetings between the schools, the first being a 20 point blow-out at Stanford, the second a two point loss at Cal. Cal's final regular season game, a loss to Washington, cost the Bears a share (with Stanford) of what would have been their first-ever Pac 10 title. Stanford has won every PAC 10 women's tournament - seven in a row - and will look to make it eight with a win over Cal. Stanford, Cal, and Arizona State are locks to get into the NCAAs, with USC on the bubble at 10-8, 17-13.

Monday stuff:

A-10: Second seeded Xavier beat top seed Temple, 47-42 to claim the Atlantic 10 tournament title and automtic bid. This may put Temple on the bubble and potentially force another major conference at-large team out of the NCAAs - Monday will tell the tale.

PAC 10: Stanford blew out California, 56-35, to claim the Pac 10 title, and Candice Wiggins celebrated another tournament MVP after recently becoming the Pac 10's all-time leading scorer. Stanford will be looking to get a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament as it hosts first and second round games next weekend.


These teams are in the NCAAs so far:

Chattanooga (29-3), Southern
Connecticut (32-1), Big East
East Tennessee State* (21-11), Atlantic Sun
Marist (31-2), MAAC
Murray State* (24-7), Ohio Valley
North Carolina (30-2), ACC
Oral Roberts (19-13), Summit
Purdue (18-14), Big Ten
San Diego (19-12), West Coast
SMU (24-8), Conference USA
Stanford (30-3), Pac-10
Tennessee (30-2), SEC
Western Kentucky (26-7), Sun Belt
Xavier (23-8), Atlantic 10

Aside from the Big 12 (see the other women's thread here), there were only a couple of interesting "big" games happening. In the Mountain West quarterfinals, Utah lost to Colorado State, 60-52. What makes this interesting is that Utah had completed the MWC regular season undefeated at 16-0, while CSU had completed the MWC season winless at 0-16, yet the Rams come away with the win.

Also in the Mountain West, Wyoming, which had started the season so strong and was ranked for much of the year, lost in the quarterfinals to San Diego State, 66-54. We'll see how strong the MWC is this year - will they get three teams in? I think one of the three gets left out - maybe Wyoming with an RPI of 38 and SOS of 87. We'll see.

Have been falling behind the past couple of days in keeping up with all the hoops stuff. Am going to just post the teams that are "in" so far and a couple of comments...

Bucknell (16-15), Patriot
Chattanooga (29-3), Southern
Connecticut (32-1), Big East
Coppin State (22-11), MEAC
East Tennessee State (21-11), Atlantic Sun
Fresno State (22-10), Western Athletic
Jackson State (18-13), SWAC
Marist (31-2), MAAC
Miami (Ohio) (23-10), Mid-American
Montana (25-6), Big Sky
Murray State (24-7), Ohio Valley
New Mexico (20-12), Mountain West
North Carolina (30-2), ACC
Oral Roberts (19-13), Summit
Purdue (18-14), Big Ten
San Diego (19-12), West Coast
SMU (24-8), Conference USA
Stanford (30-3), Pac-10
Tennessee (30-2), SEC
Texas A&M (26-7), Big 12
Texas-San Antonio (23-9), Southland
UC Santa Barbara (23-7), Big West
Western Kentucky (26-7), Sun Belt
Xavier (23-8), Atlantic 10


These conferences have their finals Sunday the 16th (with the selection show not airing until Monday the 17th):

Colonial: VCU vs. Old Dominion
Horizon League: Cleveland State vs. Wright State
Ivy League: Dartmouth vs. Cornell
Big South: Radford vs. Liberty
Northeast: Long Island vs. Robert Morris
Missouri Valley: Drake vs. Illinois State
America East: Boston vs. Hartford

These are all the automatic bids for the women's tournament. The bracket will be announced tonight at 7 EDT on ESPN.

(team, record, league)
Bucknell (16-15), Patriot
Chattanooga (29-3), Southern
Cleveland State (19-13), Horizon
Connecticut (32-1), Big East
Cornell (20-9), Ivy League
Coppin State (22-11), MEAC
East Tennessee State (21-11), Atlantic Sun
Fresno State (22-10), Western Athletic
Hartford (27-5), America East
Illinois State (26-6), Missouri Valley
Jackson State (18-13), SWAC
Liberty (28-3), Big South
Marist (31-2), MAAC
Miami (Ohio) (23-10), Mid-American
Montana (25-6), Big Sky
Murray State (24-7), Ohio Valley
New Mexico (20-12), Mountain West
North Carolina (30-2), ACC
Old Dominion (29-4), Colonial
Oral Roberts (19-13), Summit
Purdue (18-14), Big Ten
Robert Morris (23-9), Northeast
San Diego (19-12), West Coast
SMU (24-8), Conference USA
Stanford (30-3), Pac-10
Tennessee (30-2), SEC
Texas A&M (26-7), Big 12
Texas-San Antonio (23-9), Southland
UC Santa Barbara (23-7), Big West
Western Kentucky (26-7), Sun Belt
Xavier (23-8), Atlantic 10

The pairings have been announced:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncw/tournament/bracket

The #1 seeds are UConn, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Maryland. A couple of things of note: Maryland was given an #1 over Stanford and UConn and Rutgers are the 1 and 2 seeds in the same region. The selection committee generally won't match up two conference rivals before a regional final, which is what was done here - however, it IS unusual for them to put the top two teams from a power conference in the same region at all. It happened in 2002 when Tennessee and Vanderbilt were 1 and 2 in the Midwest regional played in Ames, Iowa (they met in that regional final, with UT coming away the victor).

Overall, I am thinking this year's field of 64 is pretty weak. The national champ is most likely going to come from the top 8 teams. It's hard to see any team seeded 3 or lower being strong enough to make a run at the final four. As much as I'd like to see tons of parity this year, I don't see it (upsets) happening more than once or twice. But that's why they play the games.

*Edited to point out an interesting oddity - how weak the Big 10 was this year. Ohio State managed to get a 6 seed as conference regular season champ. Iowa is a 9 seed (facing Carolina in round two if they even get by a tough 8 seeded Georgia) as the Big 10 co-champ. Purdue (the conference tournament champ and Minnesota are both 9 seeds as well. Purdue was the Big 10's highest ranked team in the rpi, 35, while OSU and Minnesota were next at 36 and 37. Iowa was next at 47 and it was downhill from there. Iowa's SOS of 55 didn't help their case either as their only 'signature' wins (against the rpi top 50) were a season sweep of the Gophers and a win against Purdue in Iowa City.

Each conference will have something to prove, though - the Big 12 and Big East that they deserved 8 teams apiece; the Big 10 that they were better than what their invitations and seeding shows; the Pac 10 that it is more than just Stanford (Cal had better win something if they want anyone to remember they were ever there); the SEC that the middle of the league has risen closer to the level of UT and LSU; the ACC that someone besides Maryland can win it all (Duke has two trips to the title game since 1999, but no ACC team has won since UNC in 1994); and on and on.

Just got done watching the OTHER Big 10 co-champ go down in the first round today. 9 seed Iowa lost to 8 seed Georgia 67-61. Iowa was the co-chapmion with Ohio State for the regular season, but earned the #2 seed for the conference tournament. The Hawks have not won a first round NCAA game since 2002 (if the graphic is correct they showed earlier).

Ohio State got bounced from the NCAAs last night in Des Moines by Florida State, a team most everyone believed was the LAST team that should have made it in because 12 of their 18 wins were against teams with an rpi of 100 or worse and only one win against an rpi top 50 team (#42 Florida). OSU was only a 6 seed as the Big 10 regular season champ (they lost in the quarterfinals of their tournament). Florida State came into the game with a mission - show they belonged in the Dance and, man, did they ever. Ohio State never got into any offensive rhythm and faltered on both ends of the court. FSU led by as many as 20 points in the second half, winning 60-49. FSU will play Oklahoma State Monday night in Des Moines for the right to go to the regional semi-final.

The Big 10 has two more shots to keep from getting swept out of the NCAAs - Minnesota vs Texas tonight at 9 EDT and Purdue vs Utah at 7 EDT. Purdue will have the benefit of playing on their home court, while UM and UT will be neutral (Bridgeport, CT).

There was only one other upset from day 1: 10 seed Hartford knocked off 7 seed Syracuse, 59-55. In a close call, #5 West Virginia beat #12 New Mexico, 61-60 in Albuquerque.

Today, #1 seed Maryland struggled for most of the game against 16 seed Coppin State, but ultimately prevailed 80-66. Maryland led by only five at halftime. It would have been only the second time ever that a 16 seed beat a 1 seed in the first round (Stanford lost to Harvard ten years ago, but the Cardinal were down two starters - Maryland would not have had that * next to an 'L' had it happened again).

This and the Xavier/Nebraska game are my only 2 misses in my ESPN Women's TC



It was Harvard, not Hartford that beat Stanford.

Whoops, 'my bad - guess I can't do everything from memory like I used to! I'll go back and edit... thanks!

The women are down to the final eight teams. Two regional finals are tonight: 2 seed LSU against 1 seed North Carolina and 2 seed Stanford vs 1 seed Maryland. Tuesday night will determine the final two spots for the national semis: 2 seed Texas A&M against 1 seed Tennessee and 2 seed Rutgers vs 1 seed Connecticut.

I guess on one hand you can say these are probably the best match-ups from each region since the top two seeds advanced. On the other hand, it's just another reminder that parity has yet to really infiltrate the women's college game. Beyond the first two rounds, upsets are rather (annoyingly) infrequent.

The women's national semi-finals start at 7 pm Eastern this Sunday, in a game that features Stanford (34-3) and Connecticut (36-1). The second game will begin about a half hour after the conclusion of the first, featuring LSU (31-5) and Tennessee (34-2). The winners will play Tuesday night for the national title.

Should be some great games. I just HAVE to give props to be Big East here:

8 teams in the Tourney
5 in the Sweet 16
2 in the Regional Final
1 in the Final Four (might have been 2 if the committee hadn't put UConn and Rutgers in the same region)
AND 1 team (Marquette) in the WNIT Final.

That's some tough competition!

The Big East definitely kicked some SERIOUS ass this year. If it weren't for a handful of really weak teams at the bottom, THEY would have been the top conference all season. Great showing!

It's Stanford vs. Tennessee in the national title game Tuesday night. Stanford knocked off overall top seed UConn, 82-73 (which personally made me happy to see - odd to say, as I am a Cal fan ). Stanford is running like a well-oiled machine and will be hard to stop. Candice Wiggins has been nearly unstoppable this whole tournament, with two games over 40 points and another 25 tonight. Made for a very fun game to watch!

Then there was the LSU/Tennessee game. This was sloppy and ugly. UT won 47-46 on an offensive put-back with less than one second on the clock. LSU's Sylvia Fowles score more than half of LSU's points (24). Candace Parker led the Vols with 13 points, 15 rebounds, and one arm. She had separated her shoulder (twice) in the semi-final game and has not been close to 100%, although what she had was enough - a testament to her skill and determination. The difference in this game was LSU going 7-19 from the charity stripe. This was LSU's fifth consecutive trip to the Final Four and their fifth consecutive loss while trying to get to the title game (those are the same streaks... duh ).

Congrats to Tennessee, which won its second consecutive NCAA title, 64-48 over Stanford. I was pulling for the Cardinal in this one, but they forgot to show up. UT's pressure defense looked as good as it did all season and held a Stanford team that had been scoring at will in the tournament to waaaay under their season average. Had thought coach Tara would have worked out a different game-plan after the half, but nothing seemed to make a difference. Had hoped for an interesting game, but it just didn't happen last night. At least the games leading up to the finals were entertaining in a way the title game was not. Again, congratulations to the Lady Vols on winning their 8th championship.

Here are the final rankings for the women's season:

ESPN/USA Today Poll
(rank, school, record, points)
1. Tennessee (31)-------36-2---775
2. Stanford---------------35-4---740
3. Connecticut------------36-2---704
4. LSU---------------------31-6---694
5. North Carolina---------33-3---623
6. Rutgers----------------27-7---617
7. Maryland---------------33-4---594
8. Texas A&M ------------29-8---585
9. Duke-------------------25-10---451
10. Old Dominion----------31-5---438
11. Oklahoma State-------27-8---428
12. Louisville---------------26-10---422
13. Notre Dame------------25-9---415
14. George Washington---27-7---372
15. Vanderbilt--------------25-9---331
16. Pittsburgh--------------24-11---284
17. Baylor------------------25-7---277
18. California---------------27-7---259
19. Oklahoma--------------22-9---188
20. West Virginia-----------25-8---167
21. Kansas State-----------22-10---150
22. Virginia-----------------24-10---118
23. Marist-------------------32-3---102
24. Georgia-----------------23-10---81
25. UTEP--------------------28-4---63

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES
Arizona State 43, Utah 32, Florida State 29, Iowa State 21, Nebraska 20, Texas 16, Hartford 15, Marquette 6, DePaul 5, Georgia Tech 5, Ohio State 3, Purdue 2