Guru’s WBB Report: Stanford Survives Oregon Comeback and Named One of Top Four Seeds at This Stage With UConn, South Carolina and Louisville

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

There was a night of some normalcy at this stage of the stretch drive on Monday featuring aspects of what the talking points normally revolve around this time of year.

No. 6 Stanford gave up a big lead at No. 13 Oregon and then came back to edge the Ducks 63-61 in Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene reminding everyone watching the nationally televised contest how tough the PAC-12 conference has become as the Cardinal ahead of No. 10 Arizona in the race for the regular season conference championship.

Two other games were played involving ranked teams and No. 19 DePaul hosted Seton Hall and handed the Pirates a second straight narrow loss 82-76 in the Big East at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, while in the Southeastern Conference, No. 17 Kentucky on the road won at Florida 88-80 in the Hurricanes’ Exactech Arena in Stephen C.O’Connell Center in Gainesville.

At halftime of the Stanford-Oregon game, the NCAA revealed the first of two advance deliberations of who the top 16 seeds would be if Selection Monday was at the moment instead of next month.

And earlier in the day, a week after the upset of South Carolina by host Connecticut in overtime, the two flipped positions in the Associated Press women’s poll and for the ninth straight year for at least one week, other times a lot more, the Huskies became the No. 1 team in the nation earning their 246th-ranking at the top.

But of course all of it is tied to various ways the sports world has had to navigate COVID-19 protocols to keep seasons alive with hopes at the collegiate hoops end that fully 64-team fields will be announced next month and able to complete the NCAA national men’s and women’s tourneys avoiding the cancellations that came at the pandemic’s outbreak 12 months ago.

 DePaul Tops Seton Hall: Had not UConn moved from The American Athletic Conference back to the Big East this season, the Blue Demons would be fighting for No. 1 right now. 

But at the start of coach Doug Bruno’s squad’s four-game home stand in Wintrust, second place will be fine enough ahead of next month’s conference tournament which will move out of its past Midwest location the past seven years mostly in Chicago and to the East in the Mohegan Sun near New London, Conn.

The gambling-entertainment venue gets to retain UConn as a participant replacing the American tourney, that includes Temple, which has moved to Fort Worth, Texas, near that conference’s headquarters.

The loss by Seton Hall (9-6, 7-5 Big East) was narrow by differential but the reality is that DePaul (12-4, 9-2), who’s only conference losses are the two-game sweep by the Huskies, had a firm grip most of the fourth and final period, building a 71-55 lead to withstand a Pirates surge that got them within four but no time to reduce things any further.

Side-benefitting from the result was Villanova (11-3, 6-3), which has been idle with another coronavirus-protocol pause for 13 days, but will return to action Tuesday at home in Finneran Pavilion hosting Butler (7 p.m.), a team the Wildcats thrashed 90-53 on the road in Indianapolis on Jan. 31.

Coach Denise Dillon’s squad in being idle has managed to move above Seton Hall by two games in the loss column into fourth place and having beaten the Pirates on the road in their only meeting.

As for the performers in the game in Chicago Monday night, DePaul’s Dee Bekelja had a double double of 22 points and 10 rebounds, while Sonya Morris had 20 points with six rebounds and five assists. Lexi Held added 17 points, including her 1,000th to get to a career total of 1,010, following Deja Church, who got her milestone last month, and another 1,000-point scorer could be soon to join the fold with Morris just 18-points shy.

Seton Hall’s Lauren Park-Lane scored 24, while Andra Espinoza-Hunter had a double double of 17 points and 12 rebounds, and Desire Elmore also double doubled with 13 points and 13 rebounds.

Incidentally, Creighton, which nipped Seton Hall in overtime at the finish 77-76 on Saturday on the road, followed up on Monday nipping host Georgetown by a point with a 42-41 win in the nation’s capital and next head to DePaul Saturday at 2 p.m. on CBSSN.

In between the Blue Demons will host Xavier at at 5 p.m. on Wednesday on the Big East Digital Network, while Seton Hall will host Georgetown Wednesday at 7 p.m. on the digital network.

Howard Leads Kentucky Over Florida:  Rhyne Howard made 12 of 20 shots from the floor, including 4-of-7 from deep had 31 points and nine rebounds to lead No. 17 Kentucky to an 88-80 win at Florida in the Southeastern Conference in Gainesville. KeKe McKinney and Chasity Patterson each scored13 for the Wildcats (15-5, 8-4 SEC), while Tennessee transfer Jazmine Massengill had nine points and 10 assists.

Howard also had nine rebounds with two steals, a pair of assists, and a blocked shot.

The game was close the first two quarter though the visitors’ 10-0 surge at the close of the half brought them to a 47-42 advantage.

Kentucky kept it going, using a 7-0 run in the third quarter to be ahead 54-43 early in the third and a Gators 7-2 close at the end of the period left the Wildcats ahead 70-59 with 10 minutes left.

Florida (10-9, 3-8) mounted an 8-0 run in the period to get within four and later one more point but the Wildcats then fired back with a 9-0 run to seal it to await their next opponent, LSU, Thursday night at Memorial Coliseum on the SEC Network +.

The Gators got 23 points and 10 rebounds from Kiara Smith, while Danielle Rainey scored 20, while Nina Rickards had 19 points and 10 rebounds.

“We talked in the huddle,” first-year coach Kyra Elzy said of when the games looked like it might go in Florida’s direction. “It’s a game of runs. We lost our defense focus a little. Take care of the ball, drive it down to the paint and take open looks which we did down the stretch.

“It just naturally happened,” Elzy said of Howard’s effort compared to just eight in the win over Tennessee. “She had some great looks. The ball just didn’t go in. It happens sometimes.”

Stanford Nips Oregon: In a game that had all the passion of an NCAA tourney matchup, the front-running Cardinal in the PAC-12 had a 15-point lead in the first half erased by the fourth-place Ducks by the final quarter as the home team even went ahead by five in the closing quarter only to see Stanford, which dropped a spot Monday to sixth in the AP Poll, come back and emerge with a 63-61 victory.

Kiana Williams scored 20 for the visitors (19-2, 16-2), who also got 16 points and nine rebounds from freshman Cameron Brink, while Lexi Hull scored 13 with seven rebounds.

Oregon’s Taylor Mikesell’s foul shot kept the momentum going for the Ducks (112-5, 9-5) to build a 61-58 lead with 1:46 left in regulation. Williams then countered from deep to knot the score with with 1:28 left.

Stanford regained the lead 63-61 on two foul shots from Brink with 27.4 remaining and Oregon missed a chance on last seconds heroics with a turnover.

“It was kind of a heavyweight fight,” said Stanford Hall of Fame coach Tara VanDerveer, whose Division I women’s basketball record coaching win total reached 1,113, ahead of UConn Hall of Famer Geno Auriemma, who is at 1,107. “It wasn’t what either team probably is used to, but you know we’re excited to be in first place in the PAC-12 and we really want to win a PAC-12 championship and we had to come through Oregon for the chance to do it.”

Stanford hosts Arizona State Friday in Maples Pavilion at 10 p.m. on the PAC-12 Network. UConn next plays Wednesday at St. John’s in Queens on the second leg of a five-game road trip that will then move to the Midwest against Xavier in Cincinnati, Creighton in Omaha, Neb., and Butler in Indianapolis before hosting Marquette on March 1. 

It’s the final true road road game for the Cardinal ahead of next month’s conference tourney in Las Vegas and the NCAA tourney, which will now be housed in the San Antonio area of Texas for the entire event, including the Women’s Final Four, to mitigate disruptions from COVID-19 protocols.

Until last weekend Stanford was away from its campus and Maples Pavilion for nine weeks beginning Dec. 1 when Santa Clara County in the Bay Area of Northern California had stringent rules in place limiting sports activity among many other restrictions.

For all the hardships, plane flights, adopted home courts, and hotel use, Stanford was one of four teams given a No. 1 seed from the NCAA tournament committee Monday night in a simulation of the actual designations next month after regular season and conference tournaments conclude.

“We need games like this,” Williams said of Stanford. “Close games. This was like a tournament atmosphere game.”

In the contest on the Ducks’ side, Mikesell had 13 points, while Nyara Sabally had 12 points and seven rebounds before fouling out, and Te-Hina Paopao scored 11 with nine rebounds.

“I am really proud,” said Oregon coach Kelly Graves, whose squad had gotten run out of the arena by second-place and No. 10 Arizona last weekend. “We don’t believe in moral victories, we wanted to win and we played hard enough and well enough to win,  but we didn’t.

“I am proud of the fight we showed. It was the first time against one of the elite teams that we played hard for four quarters. It just didn’t go our way.”

Oregon is at UCLA in Pauley Pavilion in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles at Friday at 8 p.m.

“We’re right there,” Graves said of competing with one of the conference elites. “Stanford is a legitimate championship game contender. They really are. We’re used to playing that type of team. So when we get to the NCAA Tournament, we’ll have seen everything and played against the best.”

First NCAA Reveal: Several years ago the NCAA Women’s Tournament Committee, following up on what goes on during the collegiate football season when the playoff selection group reveals several polls to provide talk and excitement around contenders for playoff berths, began a series of snapshot moments in mid-February and the beginning of March trotting out the Top 16 seeds as they saw it on those particular dates ahead of the actual real date to come a few weeks later when the complete 64-team field and pairings would be announced.

A look at how the committee was thinking was worthwhile because of the structure of the event. When the real field is announced, the first 16 seeds, which are the 1-to-4 in each region, get home games for the opening weekend ahead of the Sweet 16, though if upsets occur on Day 1, then Day 2 becomes a true neutral game.

Also there’s the projection of travel. And the women have special nuances based on geographical proximity so the 1-64 is not a true pairing top to bottom, which has set off rounds of discussion in the past.

Well, Monday night the first 16 were released and the reaction was muted for many reasons, though, and actually not a bad thing, Charlie Creme who does ongoing women’s bracketology for ESPN, is around to compare their thinking to his and vice versa.

But Monday night, other than the ability to trot out some discussion and anticipation, other than the honor of being called a No. 1 seed, maybe No. 2, the reason for just a shrug as that democratic pollster James Carville, to paraphrase his motto running Bill Clinton’s presidentisal campaign, “It’s the virus stupid.

With all the shutdowns, cancelled and postponed games, the unknown of what the day be bring, first and foremost, there is no definitive future and whatever one exists, it’s not what has been what we are used to.

The annual Women’s Basketball Coaches Association convention was cancelled months ago, thus withdrawing live events.

At this hour what crowd will be admitted to what round is unknown other than it looks like it will be limited.

So adios to electrical atmosphere.

Just listen to Baylor coach Kim Mulkey following the Bears’ lopsided win at home in the Big 12 Saturday over Texas.

“(It felt like) a glorified scrimmage. I’ve never experienced anything like that.”

Scant live media will be accorded seats and those that do will be doing from press row what the bulk of us have been doing all season, jumping on group zoom press conferences from remote locations. Live one on one access will be nil.

The conferences are just beginning to send out protocols for covering their events and conclusions are being drawn quickly that this is a heck of a lot easier doing it the way we’ve been doing it the past several months.

There is a plus side that has resulted in more widespread coverage access. Normally, we’d be out dealing with our local teams, writing afterwards, and then checking on any worthwhile results from elsewhere.

But now, the reason you are seeing a more robust report here is your Guru deals with the locals, knows what has to be in the report, and if a zoom is missed, it is either online or the team media coordinator will email a video file. 

Now the next reason it’s different with less buzz attached to the placements now is, one it is the first, so much can change.

Secondly, there’s no home court. Like the men in Indianapolis, the entire women’s tourney is in Texas, so there are going to be true neutral courts all the way through with limited, small exceptions, like if allowed entrance, Texas and Baylor fans have easy travel. 

With no home court, the field is going to be seeded in true S curve fashion 1 to 64 other than making sure conference teams can’t see each other until the elite eight although because some conference teams will not have seen each other because of cancelled and not replaced games, perhaps some intra-conference matchups may be possible.

And of course, until the field is known, it is hard to get excited in advance.

The other thing, which is a good happening, is there are a bunch of teams instead of one or two having the making of causing seed upsets.

There’s more teams in the upper portion of the bracket capable of winning it all that it is easier to take the poison handed if you are a lower seed since showing how a different placement would have been much better.

And again, a lot of the postseason will look like what the season has.

So until the field is set and there’s something to look at, the first reveal is not worth popping anxiety pills.

There are badges of honor out of this.

Oregon’s Kelly Grave didn’t learn the Ducks were made No. 11 (a third seed) until after the Stanford game, but said, “We’ll, giving a No. 11 not only says a lot about us, it says a lot about the PAC-12.”

But for the record, if you haven’t seen the placements, here they are

Region 1.                   Region 2.            Region 3.       Region 4

1. UConn, , 2. South Carolina,  3. Stanford . 4. Louisville   

8. Arizona, 7. Maryland, 6. N.C. State, 5. Texas A&M

 10. Baylor    9  UCLA,   12. Georgia,  11 Oregon 

13. Tennessee, 14 West Virginia,  15 Indiana 16 Kentucky

UConn Returns to No. 1

The return of Connecticut in Monday’s AP Poll (South Carolina fell to second) means for the past nine season the Huskies have appeared at least once. It is the 246th time Auriemma’s program has been at the top, the next closest in count is Tennessee at 112.

How fast could the Lady Vols reclaim the record?

If an 18-week season would be considered, not all seasons the same but for the sake of the math, Connecticut would have to not reach the top for the next 7.5 seasons and Tennessee would have to be No. 1 in every week of those seasons to get there the quickest.

Daunting as that is, Tennessee will soon lose another fabled position, most appearances Top 5.

Baring an upset of South Carolina this week and then some other big wins in the SEC tournament, Tennessee is not likely to get to the Top 5 this season, while the Huskies, likely to stay No. 1 the rest of the way, are just four weeks away, which would be the final poll, to also have most top five appearances.

Meanwhile, sensational freshman Paige Bueckers from UConn set another record Monday when for the second straight week she was both the Big East player and freshman, the first-ever two-time multi-winner after becoming just the fourth a week ago. She’s also been the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) for three straight weeks, a consecutive record set the second week, and likely to be named again Tuesday with the possibility of also national player of the week. 

Looking Ahead: As mentioned, Tuesday’s game card, which is light, has the Villanova-Butler game tilt, locally, and in the Big Ten, No. 11 Michigan hosting Michigan State.

On Wednesday, locally, Rutgers, on a three-game win streak, hosts Big Ten opponent Minnesota at 7 on the conference network, while Temple in the AAC is at Tulsa at 7 on ESPN+, while nationally, in the Big 12, No. 19 West Virginia is at Baylor at 8 p.m. on ESPN+

Elsewhere in the Big Ten, No. 9 Maryland will be hosting Illinois at 1 on the conference network and No. 24 Northwestern is hosting Nebraska at a time to be announced. 

As previously mentioned in the Big East, No. 1 Connecticut is at St. John’s at 6 p.m. on SNY or the FoxNOW App., and No. 19 DePaul is hosting Xavier at 5 on the Flohoops apps.

Besides Temple in the AAC, No. 12 South Florida, newly returned to play, will host Cincinnati at 7 on ESPN+.

And that’s the report.