Guru’s March Madness III - Commuting Weekend Ahead for Big Ten Commissioner at NCAA’s Women’s and Men’s Tourneys

Guru note: All times in this story are EDT, not local times.

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

SAN ANTONIO, Texas —   To paraphrase a rock song of not all that long ago: Don’t turn around, the Komissar is in town.

That would be Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren, finishing his second year after the unanimous vote of the conference council of presidents and chancellors naming him to succeed retiring Jim Delaney in June 2019.

In both a boon to equality of enthusiasm and being a fan of all in the 14-member realm, Warren boarded a jet late Friday to head down here with a scheduled 9 p.m. arrival and cheer three of the conference-best Big Ten four members that made it to the Sweet 16 and will be playing the first three games Saturday on the four-game card in the Alamondome on Saturday before heading back north to Indianapolis to root for the Michigan men’s team.

A fifth member had a shot to also make it to this round before Northwestern yielded a huge lead to second-seeded Louisville in the previous round.

The women’s teams from the Big Ten involved Saturday, leads off with the highly-anticipated showdown between fifth-seeded Iowa (20–9) facing top-seeded Connecticut (26-1) out of the River Walk region at 1 p.m. on ABC-TV featuring the top two freshmen in the country in UConn’s Paige Bueckers and Iowa’s Caitlyn Clark being played on the North Court.

Following next is sixth-seeded Michigan (16-5) in the River Walk Region on the South Court at 3 p.m. also on ABC-TV playing 2nd seeded Baylor (27-2) , the last NCAA women’s champion in 2019 since the tournament was not played a year ago due to the coronavirus.

Back on the North Court at 6 p.m. in the Mercado Region fourth-seeded Indiana (20-5) will meet top-seeded North Carolina State (22-2)  on ESPN2.

The fourth game of the day, but not involving a Big Ten squad, has third-seeded Arizona (18-5) in the Mercado Region on the South Court meeting second-seeded Texas A&M (25-2) at 8 p.m.. on ESPN2.

The other Big Ten team, which will be part of Sunday’s four-game card, has Big Ten champion and second-seeded Maryland (26-2) in the Hemisfair Region at the end of the lineup at 9 p.m. playing sixth-seeded Texas (20-9) on ESPN.

“They’ve done remarkably well since joining the conference,” Warren told the Guru on a phone chat Friday before heading for the flight down here. “(Maryland coach) Brenda (Frese) was the first coach I gave a Big Ten trophy to after I became the commissioner.”

“I’m looking forward to the women’s games on Saturday and then I’m heading back up Sunday excited to watch Michigan men. I have great respect for coach Frese and the entire Maryland women’s basketball program,” Warren noted.

“It’s crazy, at one point the conference was loaded with Philly coaches,” Warren referred to the late Penn State coach Rene Portland, retired Illinois coach Theresa Grentz, former and now retired coach Jim Foster at Ohio State, Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer when she was at Iowa before joining the Scarlet Knight, later joining the Big Ten, and ongoing coach Joe McKeown at Northwestern.

The commissioner also has a touch of Philly DNA having played on Penn’s Ivy champion squad at The Palestra in 1982.

Talking about if the Big Ten quartet all advanced to the Elite Eight and thus with a then smaller field, members would end up meeting each other, Warren chuckled, saying, “That would be a great problem to have. I pray they all stay healthy and keep performing at a high level. There really are going to be a great games this weekend.”

Warren got serious talking about current controversy involving equality of opportunity raging between the men’s and women’s tournaments.

“I’m confident, these issues of equality provide us all with an opportunity to come together in a non-judgmental fashion and make sure that we are focused on making sure we have opportunity for our women student athletes and our men’s student athletes have an opportunity in intercollegiate athletics on our campuses and we provide equitable experiences for all our student athletes,” Warren said.

“That’s been a focus for ours in the Big Ten, it’s been a focus, and now with the issues we’re facing, it provides us with an opportunity in a non-judgmental fashion to make sure we put all our attention and make sure that our men and women student athletes are treated in an inequitable fashion.”

As for the way the tournament has coped in a general sense with all the changes, and testing, and quarantines, “We’ve been able to see some great basketball this year, and we need to keep a heart of gratitude that we’re fortunate to watch some great basketball, and talent, not only on the court, but of our coaches, and our student athletes have been through a lot this year with all the testing, trying to stay healthy, and focus on academics, and perform at the highest level, athletically.

“Im just honored to serve our student athletes. I’m looking forward to see our women play. And to see our men play this weekend.”

The other three games completing the weekend on Sunday has top-seeded South Carolina (24-4) playing fifth-seeded Georgia Tech (17-8) on the South Court in the Hemisfair Region at 1 p.m. on ABC, followed by top-seeded Stanford (27-2) in the Alamo Region play fifth-seeded Missouri State (23-2) at at 3 p.m. on  the North Court, and sixth-seeded Oregon (15-8) play second -seeded Louisville (25-3) in theAlamo Region at 7 p.m., before the Maryland game.

In the Elite Eight round, on Monday, order to be announced in the 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. slots in the River Walk Region, the UConn-Iowa and Michigan-Baylor winners meet while in the Mercado Region, the Indiana-North Carolina State winners meet the Arizona-Texas A&M winners.

On Tuesday, also in the 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. slots, in the Hemisfair Region, the Georgia Tech-South Carolina winners meet the Texas-Maryland winners, while also in the Alamo Region the Missouri State-Stanford winners meet the Oregon-Louisville winners.

Next weekend at the originally scheduled Women’s Final Four only, the national semifinals are Friday night and the championship is Sunday.

And that’s the report.