The women's tournament kicks off this weekend and the NCAA committee must be full of Duke and NC State fans. UNC was the top seed in the tournament and they drew Tennessee (arguably one of the top 2-3 teams in the country), Rutgers (the best 3 seed in the tourney), and Purdue (potentially the strongest 4 in the tourney). In addition, UNC probably draws Vandy in round 2 on Vandy's home floor. Absolutely no love for the Heels.

The other brackets look strikingly different. Great teams though.

Duke could get UConn in Bridgeport in the regional finals, but my MSU Spartans may spoil the party. Duke is not playing the best the past 2-3 weeks and MSU is playing good ball.

LSU and Oklahoma could be an outstanding regional semi. Courtney Paris led the Sooners to s sweep of the talented Big 12. Can she take them back to the Final Four?

Ohio State and Maryland present a very intriguing regional matchup, with Maryland hitting on all cylinders lately.

Should be a very fun tourney for all of the fans. Action kicks off Saturday in several venues.

I was going to say the same thing Charlie. I didn't even realize how bad it was until I went back and did a little research. How is this for ridiculous?? In 2003, North Carolina was seeded #3 and was sent to play in Boulder (just so happens that Colorado was the 6 seed). In 2004, UNC #4 seed, sent to South Bend (Notre Dame #5 seed). Last year, as a #1 seed, UNC is sent to the Tempe regional where they had to play Arizona State. And now this year, they are sent to Nashville with a strong possibility of having to face Vandy!! Sylvia Hatchell should have some MAJOR beef with this trend. Of course, the committee has also sent Tennessee to play in Norfolk with Old Dominion there. Why in the world did the NCAA give home court advantage to Vandy and Old Dominion over Tennessee and UNC ????? :mad: :mad: :mad:

Well, look at that entire bracket!! Carolina. Tennessee. Rutgers. Purdue. UCLA. Texas A&M. And if you're Carolina, a possible road game at Vanderbilt. Yikes!! And then, IF you survive that, you get to the Final Four and have possibly LSU, Duke, and Maryland/Ohio State waiting for you. It's like you have to win TWO final fours if you want to win the National Championship. What was the tournament committee thinking?

If you were watching the selection show on ESPN, Kara Lawson and Stacey Dales-Schuman, who were doing the analysis, were both clearly pissed. As Stacey put it, the overall number one seed is rewarded with the Bracket of Death. You've gotta wonder.

The women's tournament went to pre-determined sites a year or two ago. They follow the men's pod system where a couple of pods are assigned to each pre-determined site. However, each site is a host school site. (For example, NC State will play in Chicago where Depaul is the host and would be the second round opponent.) So, there is a "home" team for each site.

The unfortunate thing is that the committee could have done some different things. Like move Vandy or ODU a line and let Tennessee play in Nashville and Carolina play in Norfolk. Or something like that.

The women's approach is still being worked through. I mean, the men are criticized every year and they have follwoed this system a bit longer.

I do think it is odd that the Cleveland bracket is just packed with top teams. There is more parity these days, but it is hard to justify putting all of the best teams at a seeding level in one bracket.

On the other hand, UNC had played Maryland and UConn already this season. Duke had played Tennessee, LSU played UConn and Ohio State. This may have been the only way to avoid repeat matchups. This is a priority for the committee to some degree. The 1 vs 2 matchups give us top teams playing each other for the first time this year. I would not think, however, that this would be done at the expense of overall bracket integrity.

Or maybe the committee didn't think UNC was really the best 1 seed in the tournament. I did not see the discussion with the committee chair, so I am not sure what the justification was.

Well, UNC is the overall #1 seed so they are by definition the top #1 seed. The comfort is that if they do get to the Final Four, no one can say they did not deserve it.
Tennesse is also PO'd, they got only a #2 seed and they got the last #2 seed (in UNC's bracket).
Connecticut, Surprise surprise! gets to play in Bridgeport.
Jim asked me to write a bracket prediction. Hopefully get it done this weekend.

Was hoping that you were going to do that!

Busy reading up on all 64 teams!

Well, we have our women's Sweet 16 and interestingly, there are only 2 teams that were not seeded to get to this point. This year has had a real lack of excitement in the first weekend. Boston College did pull a bit of stunner tonight, but they had played OSU to overtime earlier in the season. (I had a chance to watch BC play some ACC games this year, and have to say this was a shock. They did not look that strong in the games I watched, including a first round ACC exit.)

Utah is the other team to come through but they were a 5 who beat a 4 so how big is that upset really??

This puts us into some interesting matchups for next weekend. Duke gets MI State. If MSU shows up, they could be trouble in terms of matchups. Duke is very good, but they have played poorly in some close games this year. UConn will play Geeorgia which could be outstanding. Tasha Humphrey is all that.

UNC gets Purdue which could matchup well with the Tarheels. Tennessee gets the toughest Sweet 16 game against Rutgers. Rutgers pored it on tonight, but their game is defense and they could upend both the Lady Vols and the Tarheels on the way to Boston.

LSU is through without playing its best basketball in the first two rounds. They are looking for another trip to the Final Four having experienced considerable success the past few years. They get an interesting Depaul team that probably will not advance past the Lady Tigers. Oklahoma looks very strong and will tangle with the Cardinal of Stanford. This may be another year where the Cardinal go home after feeling like they should have gone further in the field.

Baylor vs Maryland is the yet another awesome 2/3 game in the next round. This could be a thriller, though I think Brenda Friese's team had the goods to go all the way. The winner is the strong favorite in Albuquerque. The other side of the draw are the two upstarts -- the 8 and the 5 seeds BC vs. Utah. A great opportunity for one of those schools to make the Elite 8. Where they will likely get stomped on by the Maryland/Baylor winner.

An exciting weekend next Saturday and Sunday. Tune in to the 2/3 games which should really showcase how good women's basketball can be with the right matchups.

Final Four predictions -- Rutgers, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Duke advancing to Boston.

I don't know about THAT. Yeah, the top seeds won, but there were some GREAT games. USC and USF went to the buzzer, and Tulsa had Depaul beaten and gave it away. At least it's a bit more spread around, and it's not simply a UConn-Tennessee final, as has been in past years kind of by default. And it's nice to see that last year was no fluke for Baylor and Michigan State, and that Utah was finally able to break into the second weekend, though they're usually in and out of the Top 25 during the season. And either BC or Utah will be in the Elite Eight, so we've got a shot at a Cinderella.

The first round actually had quite a few upsets--New Mexico, Hartford, Texas Christian as well as Tulsa. And of course, there was Rutgers almost going down in the 1st round, which would have been the biggest upset since Stanford lost to Harvard. It's too bad Tulsa couldn't hang on against DePaul.

Ohio St certainly didn't make the selection committee like geniuses, did they?

UCLA had the game won, then bricked it away. 15 consecutive missed shot!
Maryland or Baylor will be able to waltz; their only competition will be one another.

Well, a little more excitement, but still not a lot of surprises in the Sweet 16 of the tournament. (While it is fun to see teams like Tulsa and TCU pull off mild upsets, the women's draw has had none of the real drama of the men's.)

It was great to see Purdue come so close against Carolina. I had been telling friends that this could be the upset of the tourney. It came so close.

Those of us who live in the Triangle cannot stand the theatrics and histrionics of Ivory Latta. She is an excellent ball player, but her attitude and behavior do not warrant all the accolades.

Tonight we have Maryland/Utah. Utah is a bit of a surprise. It was amazing to see how Maryland manhandled an excellent Baylor squad. The Terps are my darkhorse pick to win it all. I have seen them play some this season and they can be scary good.

Then we have LSU against Stanford. The only surprise here is how quickly Stanford decided the Sweet 16 game with Oklahoma. That was a bit of a toss-up. The other surprise is how well Brooke Smith has come into her own. She started at Duke, but transferred because she was only ever going to be a reserve off the Blue Devil bench. Smart move.

I am expecting a Maryland and LSU set of victories tonight.

Tomorrow we get the escape artist Tar Heels. They will not escape the Vols if they get into the same situation tomorrow. These two teams are my LEAST favorite -- so the optimist in me realizes that only one gets to go to the Final Four. Small victories, small victories.

Duke and UConn. This could have been MSU and Georgia. Duke came out and re-established the fact they are again dominating. They play like this for three more games and they will hoist the trophy. (Until losing to Carolina in January, they were unbeatable. In that game, they had a 17 point lead before just going away and letting UNC come back.)

UConn and Georgia was an awesome game. Too bad someone had to lose. Kind of like the WVU/Texas men's Sweet 16. I do think UConn will fall to Duke tomorrow.

So, lets see. Before I said -- Rutgers, Oklahoma, Duke, and Maryland. Oops. Now I will say -- Tennessee, LSU, Duke, and Maryland.

Let the games prove me wrong once again!!

My original Final Four were Tennessee, Oklahoma, Duke and Maryland. 3 are still in the running.
It is true that in women's bball the top teams are still well above the rest; you have things like 6-11 upsets but rarely is a 1 or 2 upset by a low seed, at least by a seed below #4.
BTW, today's SF Chronicle had an article on the talking to that Brooke Smith got from Tara VanDerveer. Although her stats were good - 18 ppg, 7 rpg - VanDerveer tore into her, saying she was going to be benched for playing soft, not showing leadership, lacking aggression and passion, whining to refs. Smith said she was humiliated & called her parents and cried, but she examined herself and had to agree her coach was right. She has sure responded.

My Final 4 - UNC, Maryland, UConn, and LSU are all still intact.

Stanford lost a heartbreaker, again. This time to LSU. They have lost the last 3 Elite 8 games, all to #1 seeds, by a combined total of 14 points. They had the game won had not the offensive foul been called (it was not a bad call, but plenty of contact had been ignored and LSU had gone to the line 16 times to Stanford's 5).
Utah had a chance; down by one with 2 free throws in the final seconds but missed one. In OT they were outscored 12-2 by Maryland.
Two more tickets to be punched tonight.

Yes, my first two teams are through. (Even though I did revise one after the Sweet 16.) I expect tonight's games to be equally interesting.

It is a shame that Candace Wiggins went in all out of control. Augustus showed why she is considered by many the best player in the game. She saw what Wiggins was going to do and stepped in to take the charge. Great call by the official. Too bad for Stanford who once again was so close to returning to the Big Dance. LSU is in for the third straight time. (Thank you senior Seimone Augustus!)

Maryland had a surprisingly difficult time shaking Utah. I saw the Utah player who missed the free throw in regulation talking to reporters. Your heart had to go out to her. Everyone dreams of making the winning play. At least she got them to overtime. She could have missed both and it would have been over sooner.

I think I am headed out to watch tonight's matchups with my sister and her friends. Should be fun.

Yeah! There are enough people at work who have some interest in the Tennessee/NC game that we were able to commandeer one of the conference rooms with a TV. Even people who aren't really basketball fans have a degree of interest in this game because of Summitt. But it does look like NC will get the victory, even though TN has finally--too late--started playing tenacious defense.

~Adam

WOOOO HOOOOO...GO LADY TERPS!!!! FIRST NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP APPEARANCE!! YEAH BABY!!!

I expected one of the truly athletic teams to give the Tar Heels problems. It just took an extra game or two.

The Terrapins are a very good team. They were my outside shot all along. I think they just have all the pieces and parts. Plus, they have the chance to be back for the next year or two as well.

Duke and LSU are off to a bit of an ugly start. Duke is up 26-15 at the half. When a team like LSU scores only 15 points in a half, it is ugly basketball. Duke is a great team, but they can force the game into a grinding style. Not the most fun to watch.

I would love to see a Duke/UM final. They played 2x regular season with two pretty easy Blue Devil wins. Then Maryland took it to them at the ACC tourney. It would be an exceptionally rare 4x matchup in one season. (The MSU men beat Wisconsin 4x in 2000 including the Final Four.)

If Maryland wins tonight, I think they become the only D-1 school to have titles in football, and both men's and women's basketball. Michigan St. tried last year and failed.

M
A
R
Y MARYLAND...MY MARYLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!
L
A PROUD CLASS OF 2001 ALUMNI HERE!!!
N
D FEAR THE TURTLE BIATCH!!!!

Its even sweeter that it was Duke that was beaten in the national championship game!!! WOOO HOOOO!!! I'm so happy. The women's team has always been in the shadow of the men's game. They now join a short list of school's to have both men's and women's NCAA basektball championships!!! YEAH BABY!!!

[ April 04, 2006, 08:18 PM: Message edited by: ltskinmdterp ]

Anyone but Maryland. EUGH!!!!!! Brenda Freese is one of the slimiest coaches out there. She's out for the glory of one thing and one thing only BRENDA FREESE. Just ask the people in Minnesota. (We're not bitter of anything)
This national championship couldn't have happened to a bigger sleeze ball of a coach. I've heard rumors that the NCAA is doing some preliminary investigation of some alledged recruiting irregularities. She may just get her due at some point.
Just felt the need to vent my most immature gut reaction to tonights game. I'm very proud of myself (?)

Don't know anything personal about Brenda Freese, but that was a really exciting game in the 2nd half and a great comeback by Maryland. During the first half, I was expecting the game to resemble the men's final, which didn't amount to much of a competition, so I was quite enthused when Maryland turned it around, and the game became very exciting down to the final buzzer!

Great win for a great Maryland squad. It was exciting to see how overwhelmed they were at having pulled it off.

I do love Coach G from Duke. She is a friend of some people I know and they talk about what a wonderful woman she is. I think she definitely deserves a championship.

But I was happy to see UM win the game. They were exciting to watch this season and have played some great ball.

I do think that Brenda is much harder to like or trust as a coach. But she does know what she is doing. You don't produce the results at Minnesota and a very down Maryland if you can't bring the goods.

Thank goodness it wasn't Carolina.

Actually, I've heard good things about her from people who knew her in college. She graduated from the University of Arizona and played for the Wildcats under Coach Bonvicini. Her results as a coach, of course, speak for themselves. People outside her program may not like her, but being liked or trusted by your players is all that really matters.

I'm indifferent to Maryland, but I was glad that a former Wildcat had a hand in the National Championship.

[ April 05, 2006, 05:35 PM: Message edited by: aznemesis ]