Saturday, 3 a.m.
Yeah, the time’s right. Exams and March Madness don’t mix.
Hey there, everybody out there who saw the ad for the blog in Friday’s DC sports section. For those of you who are new, I’m Kevin, and I’ll be here to bring you through this wild and crazy thing we call the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship.
Since our counterparts on the UConn men’s team and beat in Tampa will be coming home earlier than expected, it looks like you’ll get some extra special coverage on the only game in town in Storrs - your No. 1-ranked UConn women.
Now, if there’s two things I learned from my gargantuan liveblog of the Big East tournament, it’s that 1) liveblogging is, like, totally difficult and 2) there’s always a market, no matter how niche, for this type of stuff.
So whether you’re a student, a Boneyard poster or our friends at http://www.womenshoops.blogspot.com, make sure you’re here throughout the tournament for news, updates, opinions, and more shameless Pat Summitt-mocking and in-jokes than I know what to do with.
So, let’s get it started, shall we?
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The NCAA women’s tournament kicks off in about nine hours with 16 match-ups scheduled for Saturday. Here’s your schedule, though I’ll be damned if I can make heads or tails of ESPN’s TV schedule. Just turn on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU (for those of you in bars or on-campus) and you’ll see these games.
I’ve never jumped a blog entry before (how exciting~!), but click “Read the rest of this entry” for the first of many Viewer’s Guides, which I’ll offer the night before each day of the tournament. In the jump, find out when and where each game is, and then read on to get my predictions and other thoughts for Day 1.
DAY 1 VIEWER’S GUIDE
NOON
Greensboro 1st Round (Des Moines, Iowa) - [7] Iowa State vs. [10] Georgia Tech
Oklahoma City 1st Round (Baton Rouge, La.) - [2] Texas A&M vs. [15] UT-San Antonio
2 p.m.
Greensboro 1st Round (Des Moines, Iowa) - [2] Rutgers vs. [15] Robert Morris
Greensboro 1st Round (Stanford, Calif.) - [6] George Washington vs. [11] Auburn
Oklahoma City 1st Round (Baton Rouge, La.) - [7] Syracuse vs. [10] Hartford
Spokane 1st Round (Albuquerque, N.M.) - [3] Baylor vs. [14] Fresno State
4 p.m.
Greensboro 1st Round (Stanford, Calif.) - [3] California vs. [14] San Diego
Spokane 1st Round (Albuquerque, N.M.) - [6] Pittsburgh vs. [11] Wyoming
8 p.m.
New Orleans 1st Round (Baton Rouge, La.) - [7] Marist vs. [10] DePaul
New Orleans 1st Round (Des Moines, Iowa) - [3] Oklahoma State vs [14] East Tennessee State
8:30 p.m.
Spokane 1st Round (Stanford, Calif.) - [2] Stanford vs. [15] Cleveland State
Spokane 1st Round (Albuquerque, N.M.) - [5] West Virginia vs. [12] New Mexico
10 p.m.
New Orleans 1st Round (Baton Rouge, La.) - [2] LSU vs. [10] Jackson State
New Orleans 1st Round (Des Moines, Iowa) - [6] Ohio State vs [11] Florida State
10:30 p.m.
Spokane 1st Round (Stanford, Calif.) - [7] UTEP vs. [10] Western Kentucky
Spokane 1st Round (Albuquerque, N.M.) - [4] Vanderbilt vs. [13] Montana
What To Watch For: Day One
–Must-See TV: If you’re a UConn fan, you should definitely check out the Syracuse-Hartford game at 2:00. Not only is Hartford representing the state, and not only is Jen Rizzotti coaching the Hawks, but you’ll definitely want to check out Cuse’s Erica Morrow and coach Quentin Hillsman. This is a team that is skyrocketing to prominence in the Big East, even if it doesn’t amount to much this season. It’s a shame these two were paired against each other, but it should be a very even match-up.
–Four You Should Watch: DePaul-Marist (for what should be a great battle between the Blue Demons’ Allie Quigley and the Red Foxes’ Julianne Viani), Pittsburgh-Wyoming (because we at the DC Blog love Agnes Berenato’s style, and because the Cowgirls are making their first NCAA appearance), New Mexico-West Virginia (more on that later), Iowa State-Georgia Tech (because it’s the first game of the day, because it should be close, and because nobody wants to watch the Duke men).
–Blowout City: LSU vs. Jackson State. Yikes. At least it’s on at 10 p.m. You could make a good case that LSU deserved a No. 1 seed, and they’re certainly an elite team. Jackson State upset Cynthia Cooper’s Prarie View squad in the SWAC Tournament. But this will be an old-fashioned beatdown for Sylvia Fowles and company. Honorable mention for Cal-San Diego, if only because I wish it so after what happened today.
–Upset Alert: West Virginia. The Mountaineers had an outside shot at a Big East regular season championship a few weeks ago. Then they blew a couple close games, came out lethargic against Louisville in the Big East tourney, and earned a de facto road game against No. 12 seed New Mexico in the first round. This is the highest seed in danger of going down Saturday, IMO.
–Fraud Watch: Your Day 1 frauds-to-look-for (and I’m sure I’ll look foolish in this category more than once before the tournament is over)? How about No. 11 Florida State, who beat zero teams in the field yet earned an at-large bid at 18-13? Ohio State’s Jantel Lavender should have a field day.
Honorable mention to UTEP, who I’ve been calling the “worst 27-3 team in the country” for some time now. But I’ll watch their game with an open mind. Show me what ya got, Lady Miners.
–Big East Tracker: Eight teams got bids, of course. Of those, five will kick off action Saturday, including the four lowest-seeded Big East teams.
Of those teams, Rutgers is a heavy favorite, Pittsburgh a solid favorite, West Virginia and Syracuse slightly less so, and DePaul is probably a pick-em with Marist.
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And, as for my picks? Well, I’m sorry to say that I’m picking all of the higher seeds to move on, except for [10] Hartford and [10] DePaul. Hopefully I’ll be stepping out onto a less secure limb as we get deeper into the tournament.
That’ll do it for tonight; unlike at the Big East tournament, there won’t be a day-long liveblog Saturday, but I’ll be popping in now and then to offer my thoughts on the action around the country. I fully expect to do one of these wrap-arounds again Saturday night. And then of course we’ll be live all day long from Bridgeport on Sunday. I hope you’ll join us too here at the Daily Campus blog.
So long from Storrs, where Pat Summitt has spies set up to catch anybody consuming misbegotten Wendy’s.
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