Caldwell's Kids "Earn" an Eight Seed

F’n BS

Out west it is has been USC and then everyone else. In women’s basketaball it’s Stanford and the everyone else because they have been so good for so long. To get any sort of recognition you have to over-achieve, and the recognition you get is never enough.

This gives us an easier Sweet 16 game! That’s the best optimism I could come up with.

Its seems like a similar pattern, at least compared to the men’s bracket this year. I know that many analysts are complaining that there isn’t enough people on the committee that know anything about basketball. After seeing these two brackets I agree.

It sucks that we weren’t placed higher, but there is a lot of potential upside to this seed. First, the team made it in the field with at large bid! Second, assuming we win the first game and Nebraska moves on, we will have a quick shot at a #1, and the weakest projected #1. Its a win-win scenario. No matter what, it would give enormous coverage to UCLA and its women’s bball program, which will make recruiting easier (not that coach has any trouble as seen by the talent brought in this year). And if we win, even more coverage. I think UCLA could pull off that upset. I’d rather face a number one early before they get into any kind of rhythm like many find late into the tourney (ie our scare vs TA&M and WKY for mens). Heck, we could repeat what the men did to Cincy during the lizard’s term. I like our chances.

I was watching the selection show with my friends on Princeton’s Women’s basketball team (an 11 seed in the Dayton region FYI) and when this came up I was very annoyed. Stanford and UConn may be unstoppable but the overall body of work this season by our Bruins is definitely more deserving of a six seed. Although most of us would have considered it a shocking upset if they lost, UCLA beat Princeton women’s team by 10 but that doesn’t take into account the fact that Princeton had a lead until 3 minutes to go when UCLA took control of the game. When you consider that Princeton is 26-2 and beat two other tournament teams (while losing to two other tournament teams in UCLA and Rutgers) and is the first team out of the top 25, thats a pretty good win. Considering they come from the Pac-10 and were the clear #2 in that conference the Bruins definitely should have been a fifth or sixth seed, its a shame, whereas I’m not that upset because the Ivy League is barely a mid-major conference (although we are in UConns region so this year I’m only shooting for the Sweet Sixteen) and an 11 seed is unprecedented. That said, Nebraska is more vulnerable than Stanford (having lost recently in the Big-12 tourney while Stanford’s loss was to UConn) and I’d love out Bruins to knock them off in the second round. Notre Dame is dangerous in the region as well however so its not as clear sailing after Nebraska as bk bruin suggests. Good thing my two teams are highly unlikely to play each other in this tourney so I can root for both.

P.S. If you are looking for an upset watch the Princeton-St. Johns game on Saturday at 12:30 and look out for Niveen Rasheed and Lauren Edwards for Princeton. Four of our five starters average double digit points and Rasheed (heavily recruited by UCLA and other Pac-10 schools) has several double-doubles this year