South Carolina women's basketball Rapid Reaction: NCAA Tournament brackets
South Carolina learned its tournament seed on Sunday night when the bracket was revealed. Here’s what stood out to me from the field of 68.
– Dawn Staley was pretty unhappy that UCLA got the top overall seed instead of South Carolina. Her case is that South Carolina has a higher NET ranking, more Quad 1 wins, and the toughest schedule in the country.
“I’m not in the room,” she said. “I think we did much more than probably any other overall number one seed. We outdid ourselves even from last year with the amount of quality wins that we had. But I guess the committee was looking at something else.”
I understand Staley’s point – especially after the second top 16 reveal when the committee had to ignore the entire body of work to punish South Carolina for one game*. But UCLA had a strong resume as well, and did have the head-to-head win.
“There were two key factors behind UCLA and South Carolina,” committee chair Derita Dawkins said. “One was the head-to-head matchup. And the other was in our criteria, which was competitive in losses. South Carolina suffered a 29-point loss to UConn. Those were the two key differences in those resumes.”
I think Staley is arguing for the future more than this season. If the committee is going to suddenly stop rewarding teams with lots of quality wins, something it has always done before, she said she will schedule differently in the future.
(*Notre Dame, the team that was a one over South Carolina in that reveal, dropped all the way to a three. That tells you how utterly ridiculous that ranking was.)
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– But – and this is a huge “But” – look at the brackets and tell me who has the easier draw. South Carolina got the two things it wanted as the top overall seed: playing in Birmingham and playing on Friday/Sunday.
It also has a much less threatening draw. The Gamecocks already demolished #2 Duke this season. They are familiar with #3 North Carolina from destroying them in last season’s tournament. #4 Maryland has struggled for most of the past month. Utah and Indiana fit the mold of dangerous 8/9 teams, but no more than usual.
On the other hand, UCLA has #2 NC State, who was playing as well as anyone down the stretch. #3 LSU beat UCLA in the Sweet 16 last season. #4 Baylor improved over the course of the season.
I know which bracket I’d rather be in. Not to mention, South Carolina can’t face UCLA, UConn, or Southern Cal until the championship game. The Gamecocks can sit back and let other teams do a lot of heavy lifting.
– My first-glance Cinderellas: #6 Florida State, the second-highest scoring team in the country, potentially playing offensively-challenged #3 LSU in the second round. #15 Lehigh over #2 Duke because it’s happened before (2012 on the men’s side). #13 Norfolk State over #4 Maryland, just for fun. My last upset is #11 Murray State over #6 Iowa.
