Louisiana Tech, Connecticut, Tennessee and Stanford received No. 1 seeds Sunday in an NCAA women's basketball tournament that offers the prospect of unpredictability and upsets.
This much is known, however: There won't be a Connecticut-Tennessee rematch in the title game next month at Charlotte, N.C. Connecticut (30-3), the defending national champion, is the No. 1 seed in the Mideast Regional, and Tennessee (26-4) is in the East. Those regional champions will meet in the national semifinals.Louisiana Tech (28-1), the No. 1-ranked team, was made the No. 1 seed in the Midwest, and Stanford (25-2) was given the top seed in the West, where the Cardinal had been relegated to the No. 2 position the previous two years.
The University of Utah (21-7) received an at-large berth into the tournament and was seeded No. 8 in the Midwest. The Lady Utes will face No. 9 seed Southern Mississippi (21-7) in the first round with the winner possibly facing Louisiana Tech.
Tennessee is a No. 1 seed for the ninth straight year. Connecticut is a No. 1 for the third year in a row, although the Huskies were moved to the Mideast this year after being in the East Regional previously.
There were no surprises among the top seeds nor among the No. 2s - Old Dominion in the East, Iowa in the Mideast, Georgia in the Midwest and Penn State in the West. This is the first year that all 64 teams in the tournament were given true seeds, which gave the selection committee more flexibility to move teams around in setting the pairings.
The top four seeds in each region are the host schools for subregionals of four teams each. The subregionals will be played Friday and Sunday or Saturday and Monday.
The 16 subregional winners advance to regionals at Charlottesville, Va. (East), Rosemont, Ill. (Mideast), Nacogdoches, Texas (Midwest) and Seattle (West). Those games will be played March 23 and March 25.
The Final Four is March 29 and 31.
Also getting home courts are Virginia and Kansas in the East, Vanderbilt and Duke in the Mideast, Clemson and Texas Tech in the Midwest and Colorado and Alabama in the West.
In first-round games involving the top seeds, Tennessee plays Radford, Connecticut meets Howard, Stanford faces Grambling and Louisiana Tech takes on Central Florida, which at 15-13 has the worst record in the field. Central Florida got in by winning the Trans-American Athletic Conference tournament.
Last year, Connecticut and Tennessee both made it to the Final Four by winning four games at home because both had regionals on their courts.
Virginia and Stephen F. Austin have a chance to do that this year and DePaul could play in a home-like setting at the Rosemont Horizon if it wins two subregional games. The DePaul men's team plays at the Horizon. During the regular season, the women play at Alumni Hall on campus.
Connecticut and Tennessee were prohibitive favorites to reach the Final Four last year, but that can't be said about any team this time.
The SEC landed seven teams in the NCAA tournament for the second year in a row: Tennessee, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Auburn. The Big Ten was next with six teams: Iowa, Penn State, Purdue, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Michigan State.
The Atlantic Coast Conference, Conference USA, Big Eight and Southwest Conference each got four teams into the tournament.
Iowa, Clemson, Auburn and Texas, all with long histories in NCAA play, returned to the tournament after sitting out last year. Western Kentucky didn't make it, breaking a string of 11 straight NCAA appearances. The Lady Toppers were 18-11 overall and 11-3 in the Sun Belt Conference, three games behind champion Louisiana Tech.
Other prominent teams left out included North Carolina and Southern Cal, both former national champions, along with Washington, St. Joseph's, Washington and Arkansas. Arkansas was 20-11 but only 3-8 in the SEC.
Making their first appearance in the brackets are Austin Peay, Butler, Central Florida, Colorado State, Harvard, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, St. Francis, Pa., and Youngstown State.