Women's Tournament Thoughts

If you enjoy the men's tournament as much as I do, you should also follow the women's game, because many of the same elements we love about March Madness are still prevalent with the ladies.

The difference between the top teams and the bottom teams is wider in the women's game which is why it was surprising when #16 Coppin State gave Maryland such a good game in the first round. But ten years ago #16 Harvard knocked off Stanford in the first round.

Georgia Tech played Iowa State and Georgia played Iowa in the first round. I think the Committee was trying to start some unique interstate rivalry. They split the games.

Georgia almost had the sweep but Iowa State started bombing 3s, making 5 out of 6 during one 6 minute stretch of the second half.

Speaking of 3, the Marist Redd Foxxes trailed DePaul 55-44. They won 76-57, thanks to 5 out of 7 threes down the stretch and DePaul did not score for the last 8:30 of the game.

I am very surprised they named their teams after Redd Foxx. I had no idea he went there. Ya big dummy!

There are a lot of familiar names in this tournament. Meg Bulger on West Virginia is the younger sister of Rams quarterback Marc Bulger. Brittany Ray on Rutgers is the younger sister of Allan Ray who used to play for Villanova. Rashanda McCants on North Carolina is the younger sister of Rashad McCants of the Timberwolves. Their parents were very creative with names. Candice Wiggins who stars for Stanford is the daughter of former San Diego Padre Alan Wiggins. Candice scored 44 points in Stanford's win over Texas-El Paso. Wiggins is one of the best players in the country and could be the second pick in the WNBA Draft after Candace Parker.

And I spent way too long researching this but it seems that Jodi Bolerjack of Wyoming is not related to CBS announcer Craig Bolerjack. Jodi's father is named Paul, Craig is named Craig and his brother is named Steve.

I'm not going to get into which players I thought were pretty because its trite and sexist and really has nothing to do with why I watch women's basketball. Plus, the players never look as good in their pictures on the internet as they do in their ponytails and uniforms. But I will say the best looking player I saw all weekend originally went to Syracuse but transferred because the program was in disarray. Too bad she didn't stick around for the Quentin Hillsman era.

Also, there will never be a women's basketball player as hot as Brittany Jackson, who looks much better in other pictures.

Unfortunately Syracuse disappointed in its first round game against Hartford. SU was trailing most of the game but came back to take a 49-48 lead but then Hillsman lost his mind and got a technical with 3 minutes to go. I don't think what he did was so bad, the refs should have let it go, but they didn't and instead of leading by 1, SU was trailing by 1. But SU battled back again to take a 53-51 lead when the Jim Boeheim offense took over. SU killed 30 seconds off the clock then drove the lane and lost the ball leading to a Hartford fast break. And to make it worse Chandrea Jones fouled the shooter giving Hartford a 3-point play. But once again SU came back as Tasha Harris's corner jumper gave SU a 1-point lead with 22 seconds to go. But then Marylynne Schaefer hit a difficult 3 to give Hartford the win.

Crazy ending to the Florida State - Oklahoma State game. Florida State was leading the whole time, lost their lead but scored at the end of regulation to force OT. Then in OT they got down 5 (the biggest deficit of the game for either team) but bombed 2 3s to tie it. Oklahoma State had the ball and one last chance, and Florida State committed a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad foul with less than a second left. There was so little time left that had OSU made the pass, they never would have had time to get a shot off. And the referees spent several minutes reviewing the tape to make sure the foul occurred before the red light went off. It did and the foul had to be called, it was obvious. Tough way to end the game though.

Perhaps the most exciting game of the first weekend was Old Dominion over Virginia. ODU had a sizeable lead for most of the game Virginia started a comeback but with 23 seconds left they were still down 1 so they had to start fouling. Down 3, Virginia decided to go for the quick 2. And this is the play-by-play of what happened next:

0:13 Lyndra Littles missed Two Point Jumper.
0:13 Lyndra Littles Offensive Rebound.
0:10 Lyndra Littles missed Two Point Layup.
0:10 Lyndra Littles Offensive Rebound.
0:06 Lyndra Littles missed Two Point Jumper.
0:06 Sharnee Zoll Offensive Rebound.
0:05 Lyndra Littles missed Two Point Layup.
0:05 Aisha Mohammed Offensive Rebound.
0:02 Aisha Mohammed made Two Point Layup.
0:02 Foul on Shahida Williams 78-77
0:01 Aisha Mohammed made Free Throw.

Four missed shots, four offensive rebounds, a put back...and a foul. The funny thing is, the strategy to go for the quick 2 failed because by the time they got it, they didn't have any time left, but they got fouled.

ODU rebounded to win the game in overtime on a 25 footer 3-pointer by Jazz Walters with 6 seconds left.

The game was played on Old Dominion's home court even though Virginia was a 4 seed, and ODU was a 5. It was one of several games played on the home court of the lower seed. #12 New Mexico hosted #5 West Virginia and almost pulled off the upset. In the men's tournament people go nuts when a team has to play in the home state of another team, imagine if it were the home court. But the women's game needs to do this to ensure good attendance.

There are 5 Big East teams in the Sweet 16, of 8 that made it. UConn, Rutgers, Notre Dame, Louisville and Pittsburgh.

All 5 of those teams beat Big 12 teams in the second round.

Louisville will play North Carolina on Saturday, the same day Louisville will play North Carolina in the men's bracket if both teams win on Thursday.

I orginally wrote off Rutgers but I think they have improved on offense this year with the emergence of Epiphany Prince. Piff scored 10 or Rutgers's first 12 points of the second half. She hit 3 of 5 three pointers including 2 in a row in 30 seconds.

I do think we are headed for a UConn-Tennessee epic final game.

I know there's a lot here but I've been working on this post four 5 days.