NCAA Basketball Tournament Bracket is set!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010 -
It is women’s basketball fans favorite time of the year --- March Madness. Will UConn continue their historic dominance and win its seventh national title? Or will there be a stand-out Cinderella story that keeps fans on the edge of their seats?
Selection Monday saw some surprises and some not-so-surprising results. Connecticut, Tennessee, Stanford and Nebraska locked up the four No. 1 spots, while perennial powerhouses like Maryland will have to settle for watching the action from home. The action begins Saturday in regional play and will continue until the National Championship game in San Antonio at the Alamodome on Tuesday, April 6.
Not sure which teams to follow? According to NCAA.com, here are five teams fans should keep their eye on:
Wisconsin-Green Bay
They saw an amazing win streak broken this season, received the Horizon League's first-ever at-large bid instead of the automatic bid and now anything is possible as the Phoenix with a No. 12 seed in the Dayton Region take on fifth-seeded Virginia this weekend.
Without a single senior on the roster, this team is young. However considering that this will be the 10th appearance in the last 13 years and second in the last three seasons, this team knows what is expected of them at this point in the year.
Leading the Phoenix are four Horizon League student-athletes that include regular starters Celeste Hoewish (13.8 ppg and 4.1 rpg), Kayla Tetschlag (team-leading 14.8 ppg and 6.5 rpg), Julie Wojta (14.2 ppg and 6.1 rpg) and Sara Eisher (5.8 ppg and 2.6 rpg).
TCU
For nine out of the last 10 years, the Horned Frogs of TCU have been a regular in the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament. In addition, after out-lasting a four overtime game at Utah in February, this team from the Mountain West Conference (MWC) knows how to thrill women's college basketball fans.
TCU brings experience into the tournament this year with the current MWC Coach of the Year in Jeff Mittie and seven upperclassmen which include junior Helena Sverrisdottir (13.6 ppg and 6.6 rpg) who is the MWC Player of the Year.
TCU enters the tournament as the No. 9 seed in the Memphis Region and will be challenged by the No. 8 seed of Dayton. TCU is not ranked nationally, but they did receive votes and recorded some key wins against Texas A&M (No. 2 seed in the Sacramento Region), Fresno State (No. 13 seed in Memphis Region) and San Diego State (MWC automatic bid winner and No. 11 seed also in the Memphis Region).
Gonzaga
They are nationally ranked at 18, earned the automatic bid by winning the West Coast Conference (WCC) post season conference tournament and field a team that includes a two-time WCC Player of the Year and the current WCC Newcomer of The Year.
WCC Coach of the Year Kelly Graves' line-up consists of WCC Player of the Year Courtney Vandersloot (14.6 ppg and 289 assists), Heather Bowman (team-leading 15.6 ppg), Vivian Frieson (team-leading 7.3 rpg) and WCC Newcomer of the Year Katelan Redmon (10.8 ppg).
The Bulldogs - who are in the Sacramento Region -- enter the tournament on a five-game win-streak and to improve upon their best finish from last year's second round, they will need to get past No. 10 seed North Carolina and the winner of the No. 2 seed Texas A&M and No. 15 seed Portland State first round game.
UCLA
Back in October, UCLA was projected to finish fourth in the conference by the Pac-10 coaches. Instead of living up to expectations, they surpassed them. This young team finished the season second in the conference standings and 23 in the country.
Guided by 2010 Pac-10 Coach of The Year Nikki Caldwell, this Bruin roster consists of only three seniors and none of them are full time starters. Instead, the Bruins typically start freshman Markel Walker (a All-Pac-10 Freshman Team honoree), sophomores Jasmine Dixon (All-Pac-10 Team honoree) and Rebekah Gardner (team leader in blocked shots - 24), juniors Darxia Morris (team leader in assists - 102) and Doreena Campbell (a two-time All-Pac-10 Team honoree).
Before falling to the No. 2-ranked team in the country of Stanford last weekend, UCLA had won their last 10 games, so they have some momentum heading into the tournament.
Princeton
They did not have a post season conference tournament to play, but after finishing with a perfect 14-0 record in the Ivy League, the women of Princeton are in the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament for the first time in the program's history. .
The Tigers' success has come from a young team that starts two freshmen (Lauren Polansky and Niveen Rasheed), two sophomores (Lauren Edwards and Devona Allgood) and one junior (Addie Micir). They may only have two seniors on their 12-player roster, but with five players earning all-league honors, youth is king when it comes to winning games.
Princeton is led by third-year coach Courtney Banghart, who has a resume that isn't too shabby. Banghart played in two NCAA Women's Basketball Tournaments while part of the Dartmouth program and was part of the Dartmouth coaching staff that almost knocked off Rutgers during their perfect conference season in 2006.
Set your brackets now and follow all the heart-pumping and exciting action of your favorite college teams!
Full bracket here.