Dayton Regional loaded with Final Four contenders
Tennessee - a No. 1 seed along with Duke, North Carolina and Connecticut - was assigned to the NCAA women’s basketball tournament’s Dayton Regional along with defending champion Maryland and two conference winners.
The Terrapins are No. 2 in the Dayton bracket, while Big 12 Conference champ Oklahoma is No. 3 and Big Ten power Ohio State is the fourth seed.
“This region is very, very stacked, but am I surprised? Absolutely not,” Tennessee coach Pat Summitt said. “I’d have been surprised if it hadn’t been. There’s a lot of great teams obviously in our bracket, and yet there’s no easy bracket in women’s basketball these days.”
Now, the four teams, all national title contenders, are competing for that one Final Four spot.
The 64-team tournament begins Saturday.
Although all four rank in the top 10 in the RPI standings, committee chair Judy Southard defended putting them in the same region.
“One of the things we have to remind everyone of is that the RPI is just one of the tools we use,” she said. “The RPI is a quantitative measure that doesn’t reflect the quality of a team.”
Surely, being the defending champion does.
Maryland has a very simple, very difficult mission - trying to become the first repeat champions since Connecticut won three straight from 2002-04.
The Terrapins will face Ivy League champion Harvard on Sunday afternoon in Hartford. Maryland, which returned all five starters from last season’s team, was 0-5 against Duke and North Carolina this season.
“The only team that’s going into the tournament knowing they can win it is Maryland, cause they’ve won it, and they’ve got a lot of the players back from the team that won it,” Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma said.
While competitive balance is the hot topic in Dayton, the Fresno Regional is bursting with subplots off the court.
LSU, the No. 3 seed, is without coach Pokey Chatman, who abruptly resigned last week.
A school official with direct knowledge of the matter told The Associated Press on Monday that Chatman was not allowed to be alone with her players after assistant Carla Berry reported alleged improper conduct to the university in February. The official requested anonymity because it was a personnel matter.
Chatman, who told her team last Thursday that she would not coach them in the NCAA tournament, has not been available for comment.
“The kids have done a wonderful job,” said acting head coach Bob Starkey. “They are a very resilient bunch. They have been through difficult times with Sue Gunter’s death and Hurricane Katrina.”
The Tigers will play North Carolina-Asheville on Friday night in Austin, Texas.
“Our mission will never change,” said LSU center Sylvia Fowles. “We know what we’re here for. We know where we’re trying to get and what we’re trying to prove so our mission stays the same.”
But the sentimental choice in Fresno might be North Carolina State and coach Kay Yow. The Wolfpack, who have won 11 of 13 games since Yow returned from breast cancer treatments, are the No. 4 seed. They will play Robert Morris on Sunday in the first round in the Raleigh subregional.
“The team was just really excited to have me back. I was excited to come back,” Yow said. “When you have a player that is out and not with you, you’re not whole. You want everyone there doing what they can.”
Waiting for them in the regionals likely will be No. 1 seed Connecticut (29-3), which opens against No. 16 UMBC on Sunday in Hartford and eventually could face No. 2 Stanford, which plays No. 15 Idaho State at home.
If they advance past the first two rounds, the Huskies must travel to Fresno, Calif., for the regionals. During its run of five national championships since 1995, Connecticut hasn’t been farther West than Kansas City.
Duke, ranked atop the AP Poll for the final nine weeks, hopes for better results than the last time the Blue Devils finished No. 1 - the 2003-04 final poll.
They lost to Minnesota in the regional finals that season.s9
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