UNC is a #1 Seed but do they get to play in the mini-pod in Raleigh (as does #1 seed Dook)???? NOOOOOOOOOO. Number FOUR (4) seed NC STATE gets to play at home instead, so UNC, as a #1 seed gets shipped somewhere else.
HOLY F-in crap. UNBE-FREAKIN-LIEVABLE.
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EDIT to expand the thread to the women's tourney generally and to add a mea culpa for above b/c when I posted this, I thought Kay Yow was on the mend, but read in a very sad piece in the NY Times that her cancer has metastasized, the prognosis is poor and her father died last Monday (which she described as something of a relief b/c he was ill in a nursing home and she was worried what would happen to him if she were not around).
And we may get to play Texas A&M in Dallas in the Sweet 16. Tennessee got screwed too. The committee on the woman's side consistently does a terrible job balancing their brackets.
Shameless hussies!
In regards to thsi thread title: THIS THREAD IS WORTHLESS WITHOUT PICS!!!!!!
When I was on campus there hardly were any women, much less any "user friendly" ones.
That's a pretty poor bracketing job all around.
nycfan Wrote:UNC is a #1 Seed but do they get to play in the mini-pod in Raleigh (as does #1 seed Dook)???? NOOOOOOOOOO.  Number FOUR (4) seed NC STATE gets to play at home instead, so UNC, as a #1 seed gets shipped somewhere else.
HOLY F-in crap.  UNBE-FREAKIN-LIEVABLE.
nycfan - not to defend the system, because the women's tournament setup is a joke, but only 2 teams can play in a region and if a team (in this case NC State) applied to host a sub-regional site and gets it, they pretty much get to play there under nearly all circumstances.  At least State earned a 4 seed and plays there ... if they were a 6, 7 or even a 10 seed it'd be a travesty (as Colorado had that one year we played them).
As far as I'm concerned,
under this ugly format, we ended up with as good a locations as we could possibly get - Pittsburgh is a 6 hour drive/ 45 minute flight from RDU and Dallas has a pretty good alumni base for us to play at (perhaps Jerry Stackhouse might round up a few people as well).
But I hear ya nyc, its a shame the system is set up this way.  They either need to be fully neutral sites or go back to the old way with the top 4 seeds getting home court for the first 2 rounds (Rutgers also got screwed as a 4 seed having to play at the 5 seeds court).
The only way I think the committee screwed us was by putting Texas A&M as the #4 seed in our region. We weren't going to get the Raleigh opening rounds because dook and State were going to be there. No big deal - we should be able to win those two rounds anyway. If we can't, then we're not as good as we all hope we are.
The A&M thing worries me because we'd have to meet them in Dallas in the Sweet 16, but we'll just have to take care of business if that game ends up happening.
Considering the other options out there, I think we have to be happy with Purdue as a #2 seed.
The women always get the short shaft. If we had taken care of business during the regular season we would be in Rawlee. I haven't really looked at the brackets but I'll assume that we are not playing a lower seed on their home floor this year so that's an improvement.
Keeping host schools in their home location regardless of seeding (see 8-seed Pitt possibly facing 1-seed Tennessee in the 2nd round) is pathetic, IMO. If the women's game doesn't have enough support to have pre-set opening round venues, then they should have stayed with the top 4 seeds hosting.
Sorry, but after purportedly being the #1 overall seed last year and STILL getting shipped to play our opening rounds while the Dookies played in Virginia, after playing a 5 seed on their home court as a #1 seed and a #6 seed on their home court as a #3 seed, I've had it with the women's tournament selection and placement process.
That said, despite possibly meeting A&M in Dallas, which is a crock, overall the draw wasn't nearly as outrageous as those past years and at least they didn't set up a potential match-up with Oklahoma in Dallas, too.
BTW, TN is the team that really got it stuck to them this year, IMO.
A&M is potentially troublesome, but Purdue as the two should provide some comfort, even if small.
A&M lost to GW tonight, so if we get through Notre Dame tomorrow, we shouldn't have to worry about any home crowd disadvantage.
Really, there are no excuses now. This team should be able to get to the Final Four.
#10 FSU is about to upset Stanfraud on its home court.
There could be 4, possibly 5 teams (Go State!) in the Sweet 16 from the ACC.
What a major difference b/t the men's and women's tourney.
I'm a little nervous about ND having a few fans there tomorrow, but if we play our game we should be able to handle them. Keep them focused, Sylvia.
I thought FSU could stick it to Stanford. A ten seed was absurd for the Noles, IMO. I watched the first half of the game but had to call it a night then.
Let's not count our chickens on the Heels winning tonight, though. Don't get me wrong, they *should* win, but Notre Dame is a tough program and a tough team that could give us fits, especially after such an easy first round game that we played zone the entire second half.
They look terrible right now - down 6 to Notre Dame with 15 minutes left.
Lookin better now up 4 but a nial biter
That was quite a scare. The ladies pulled it out with a critial 15-0 run when they got down by 8. And, honestly, it could have gotten a lot worse at that point. They had no organization whatsoever, and they looked slow on defense. Notre Dame was adept at running a Princeton stall ball offense. They would keep cutting and passing until we had an inevitable defensive lapse that resulted in an easy score for them.
I'm not sure what lightbulb clicked on for the ladies, but they came back after being down 8 with ferocious D and a smarter offensive plan. Instead of jacking up quick threes, they worked the ball around and found open players down low. They were also able to start turning the Irish over more, and the helped a bunch.
It wasn't a thrilling performance, but I'll take it. On to Dallas!
Survive and advance. I thought we were surprisingly passive defensively much of the game ... it was a bit perplexing. But Hatchell kept her cool, the team ratcheted up the half-court defense and we finally got some nice offensive plays in the half-court in that key run to take control of the game. For a game in which Erlana Larkins was MIA and ND had a great box & 1 on Latta, it was a gritty, gutty win.
The depth of the women's game has not reached into the bottom seeds yet (notwithstanding Harvard's upset of 1-seed Stanford some years back), but it is definitely improving tremendously down to the lower at-large seeds.
BTW, a big fat BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA to the Terps for their 2nd round faceplant. I actually like most of their players (except Deron who has been there about 1,000 years), but I *really* can't stand their coach. I thought they were a bit of a fluke last year absolutely playing out of their minds, but I think they consistently proved that was true this season ... in a related note, Tennessee's brutal region on paper certainly has opened up a bit, though (absent any more upsets), a tough game with Oklahoma looms.
This women's tourney has been the best in my memory thus far, btw. The depth of quality teams and the quality of play has been outstanding. I think it has been more enjoyable by far than the first two rounds of the men's tourney (which I watched wall to wall) overall, despite some absurd first round blow-outs, though the men's tourney had a strong day on Saturday. I expect the Sweet 16 in both tourneys to be a lot of fun, but the real action should start in the Final 8 ... there just seem to be about half a dozen teams in both tourneys truly capable of winning it all and the survivors should start banging heads in the Final 8.
I agree nyc...this years tournament, except some of the higher level games in the first round, have been very competative. I think that is what has hurt the women's game in the past - there are 10-15 teams every year that are heads above the rest. That is why you see teams in the first round winning by 50+. There isn't the parity that you see in the Men's collegiate game. This year has been a lot more competative, even if higher seeds haven't been advancing.
I like most of Maryland's players except Coleman - don't know why, but she just rubs me the wrong way.
As for Frese, I've never been that big a fan of hers. I've never seen her actually coach other than just having tirades on the sidelines and/or being on the court trying to intimidate opposing players. (She always seems to creep onto the court when the opposition is bringing the ball over to her side of the basket.) Anyway, she seemed clueless as to how to stop Ole Miss last night. I thought Sylvia had her coaching deficiencies, but Frese blew those out of the water this year. I know they were preseason #1 and brought everyone back this year - plus another "star" player - but they didn't do anything impressive the entire season. I guess they flew under the radar last year and got a little lucky come tournament time.
Anyway, it still looks like dook is the team to beat this year, but I'd love to have that opportunity. Let's take out GW and get one step closer....
Okay, so now UConn has gone down and it's #4 seed Rutgers and #3 seed LSU facing off in the Final Four.
If both UNC and Tennessee make it through to the Final Four, then I have to think that the winner of that game has the inside edge to the title. If only one of those teams makes it, then that team automatically becomes the favorite.
I dunno, I think LSU has looked awfully tough in this tournament -- they should be favored to beat Rutgers, have already taken out TN this year and will be a tough match-up for anyone. It seems like they are benefiting from the controversy about their (former) HC, maybe an emotional bump but maybe better bench coaching(??)
Purdue will give the Heels a tough, tough game tonight. We need to be clicking on all cynlinders to get through to the Final Four.
GO HEELS!!!!!