The Guru’s Daily March Madness Report: Army Shoots La Salle Out of WNIT Enhancing Kuester WBCA Maggie Dixon Candidacy; Princeton’s Berube Northwestern Bound

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopgurux

WEST POINT, N.Y. – After getting swept in two meetings with Saint Joseph’s this past season, La Salle was victimized by more Hawks DNA here at the United States Military Academy Wednesday night at Cristl Arena where a local notable from Media, Pa., continued to make good, this time at the Explorers’ expense as first-year coach Katie Kuester guided Army to a 74-63 victory making the Black Knights (26-7) the first Patriot League team to advance to the Great Eight of the WNIT.

From the outset of the Super 16 round, Army went through La Salle (19-14) like a Sherman tank, firing away to a 25-13 lead after a quarter and going up by as many as 26 points before the Explorers’ continuing fight brought the differential to a respectable 11 points at the finish.

The winners doubled the opposition’s 3-point output 10-5 and overall displayed a 56.3% target efficiency from the field compared to the blanks accounting for La Salle’s 37.9%.

So ended the Explorers’ joy from Monday night in which they beat Binghamton back home in the John E. Glaser Arena in Philadelphia giving coach Mountain MacGillivray his 100th victory in La Salle’s first post-season appearance since 1992 and post season victory since a 1989 NCAA dispatch of UConn two years before the Huskies made their Final Four debut in New Orleans.

There were positives in the loss with a career performance of game highs of 24 points and 11 rebounds from Kiara Williams, while Ashleigh Connor scored 19 with four steals, and Atlantic 10 defensive player of the year Aryss Macktoon had three assists and five thefts finishing with a program best 105 thefts, 11th nationally.

All of which had MacGillivray upbeat over the future with all the key pieces back if none enter the portal.

“Hats off to Army, Katie’s doing great, they had their best night, we weren’t our very best, but we had no practice yesterday, but couldn’t be more proud of what they did,” he said.

“They didn’t quit. We looked like we were going to lose by 40 at one point, Army didn’t miss a shot. We kept fighting, that’s been us all year, hopefully we set the tone for the future. I’d love to see a lot of these young ladies back and we’re excited about the kids coming in.”

La Salle was the last of the 13 Guru D-1 locals ending their seasons.

Army is the place where in 2006 a promising former DePaul assistant, Maggie Dixon, the sister of then Pitt men’s coach Jamie Dixon, guided the Black Knights to their first Patriot League title and NCAA appearance, was carried off the floor by the cadets and sadly a week later succumbed to an undetected heart defect while taking a morning run here at the academy.

Each year the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association presents the Maggie Dixon Award to the top rookie head coach and ironically, Kuester, a former Saint Joseph’s star who spent the last decade at her alma mater on Cindy Griffin’s staff, has frontrunner all over her resume which would be sweet being from Army.

The daughter of longtime NBA coach John Kuester, she already has the most wins by a first-year Army coach.

The WBCA awards committee will deliberate next week at the Women’s Final Four in Phoenix and announce its list of winners.

Army tied Holy Cross for second behind preseason favorite Navy with Holy Cross, whose roster has Griffin’s daughter Hannah and Plymouth Whitemarsh grad Kaitlyn Flanagan, beating Army and Lehigh for the NCAA automatic qualifier.

The Knights after a long idle stretch prior to Sunday’s contest rallied from a 15-point deficit to beat NJIT 59-52 at home before showing a balanced effort against La Salle.

Fiona Hastick, who missed the non-conference part of the schedule rehabbing from a preseason ankle injury, had her best game with 13 points while Reese Ericson scored 19 points, and Kya Smth and Camryn Tade each scored 16 points.

Brooke and Taylor Wilson are Archbishop Carroll grads.

Army had only one postseason victory prior to this year.

The teams traded runs in the final period, Army at 10-0 countered by La Salle at 9-0 in the first-ever meeting between the programs.

“I think our start, we really emphasized having a big start tonight,” Kuester said. “I think that first quarter showed a lot. We just kept coming at them.

“I thought we had a great start, great middle, maybe a shaky end, but when you have those two portions so heavily in our favor, you're allowed for lapses here and there.

 “Having that cushion is huge. So proud of Fiona Hastick. It's been a long time coming for her to try and get her legs under her and get a feel for the game, especially learning a new system offensively and defensively... Just proud of our team collectively and what we showed,” Kuester said.

The Carousal Spins

The local number reached four at the Division I level Wednesday with news that Princeton’s Carla Berube is heading to Northwestern, succeeding retiring Father Judge grad Joe McKeown, with speculation that Tigers alum Addie Micir at Lehigh could be the successor.

Lafayette announced Monday Kia Damon-Olson is being let go after nine seasons, making it possible La Salle assistant Chris Day could land at either Patriot school.

Rutgers last week introduced former LSU assistant Gary Redus II while earlier this week Penn State introduced former standout Tanisha Wright.

WBIT Elite Eight

The matchups Thursday night that will determine who finishes at Wichita, all on ESPN+, San Diego State at Kansas, and Harvard at Wisconsin, 7:30 p.m., Stanford at BYU, 9 p.m., and Columbia at California, 10 p.m.

BYU is the only No. 1 seed still in the field.

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

The Guru’s Daily March Madness Report: Villanova Readies for Texas Tech; Drexel Melts Again in WNIT; La Salle Ends Three Decade Postseason Drought; NCAA Starts Four Days Wide Coverage

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

Now that the women’s First Four has been halved to the surviving four, the big show gets under way across the nation but for the Philly locals it will be at day-long wait in Baton Rouge, La., on the campus of two-seed LSU (27-5) until 10-seed Villanova (25-7) plays 7-seed Texas Tech (25-7) at 8:30 p.m. (ESPNU) which will come after the host Tigers play 15-seed Jacksonville (24-8) at 6 p.m. (ESPN).

Coaches never like to look ahead until their next game if one looks back to the Wildcats’ last appearance in 2023 in the NCAA, which was in the Sweet 16 which became superstar Maddy Siegriest’s last game for ‘Nova, coach Denise Dillon’s squad that lost to underseed Miami which had upset Indiana was a game away from meeting LSU in Greenville, S.C.

In the loss to the Hurricanes the Wildcats made a big rally to briefly draw even and then fade at the finish.

Most people are calling for Villanova to pull one of the opening day upsets against a Texas Tech squad coming off a long dry spell of NCAA appearances.

The Red Raiders are coached by Krista Gerlich, a former Texas Tech teammate of Sheryl Swoopes on the 1993 national champions making it two coaches at their alma maters against each other while LSU hall of fame coach Kim Mulkey is in her home state where as a player she was on Louisiana Tech’s national champions.

We’ll be back to look at the key games for Friday in the NCAA, but a lot happening involving locals and others that occurred Wednesday and especially in the WBIT, which has no local teams, and the WNIT, which saw sadness strike Drexel and Lehigh also eliminated.

Dragons Hearts Broken Again While La Salle has WNIT Hosting Duties Monday

Just one day before a week ago in Drexel’s semifinal loss in overtime in the CAA semifinals after a turnover in the closing seconds of regulation cost a shot in the conference title, where coach Amy Mallon’s team (21-11) would still have been an underdog to eventual champion Charleston, the only debut team in this year’s NCAA field, it was nightmare city déjà vu in a WNIT opener loss 69-67 in overtime at St. Bonaventure (17-15)  in upstate New York Thursday night.

Holding a 50-42 lead going into the final period and a 10-point lead at one stretch of the second half, the Bonnies methodically caught the Dragons at 59 all with 2:22 left in regulation and neither team was able to win it or score before needing an extra minute.

The home team was able to survive Drexel’s 40-20 domination in the paint throughout ultimately with a near perfect 12-13 on the line to the Dragons’ mere 2-4.

After Laine McGurk, who had 19 points, tied it with her fifth 3-pointer with 13 seconds left it came down to the Bonnies’ Aaliyah Parker, who had all her 13 points in the second half along with 10 boards for the game, driving the lane in a crowd with nine seconds left for the game winning layup before Amaris Baker tried to get it back with a three at the buzzer that went off the rim for the final shot of her Drexel career.

Laycee Drake had a game-high 24 points for St. Bonaventure.

“Drexel is one of the most consistent mid major programs in the country,” said Saint Bonaventure coach Jim Crowley, on his second tour of duty with the program. “I have so much respect for how they do things. We did what we needed to do.”

The outcome ruined a career night off the bench for Spaniard Julia Garcia Roig, a junior out of Barcelona who had 14 points and completing her first double double with 10 assists while her seven makes were a personal best and she pulled four boards.

St. Bonnies moves to the second round 7:30 p.m. Monday night at Middle Tennessee, whose longtime legendary coach Rick Insell 21 years at his alma mater just announced his retirement to be followed by his son and associate head coach Matt.

Longtime Quinnipiac coach Tricia Sacca Fabri, a native of Delran in South Jersey, also announced her retirement after tying Fairfield for first in the MAAC and losing to the Stags in the championship.

Thursday night the Bobcats (27-6) in a WBIT opener won 71-64 at Atlantic 10 co-champion George Mason (23-10) in Fairfax, Va., and will play Sunday at 5 p.m. (ESPN2) at sector No. 2 seed Stanford (20-13), which advanced at home in Ma a narrow 80-76 win in Maples Pavilion over LMU (21-10).

Two of the four first out NCAA No. 1 seeds in the WBIT were upset, Utah (19-13), which was unable to host, fell 72-58 to unseeded Eastern Kentucky (24-8) while Texas A&M (14-13) at home in College Station in Reed Arena 68-48 to unseeded McNeese (28-5), the regular season Southland champion.

Missouri (17-16), a four seed under former Tennessee coach Kellie Harper, won 67-57 at Seton Hall (19-13).

Both Ivy teams won, Columbia (20-8) demolished its nearby New York metro neighbor Saint John’s 74-26 at home in Levien Gym led by Ivy player of the year Riley Weiss with 24 points to end the Red Storm season at (22-12) while the Lions Sunday play at No. 1 seed North Dakota (29-5) at 2 p.m. (ESPN+).

No. 4 seed Harvard (19-11) won 73-52 at home in Lavietes Pavilion in Cambridge, Mass., over Patriot League regular season champion Navy (22-9) and Sunday will host Eastern Kentucky at 2 p.m. (ESPN+).

Back in the WNIT La Salle, in postseason play for the first time in over three decades since 1992, will host Binghamton at 6 p.m. in the John E. Glaser Arena after the Explorers’ opponent advanced with an 81-60 victory over Mercyhurst.

That winner will meet Sunday’s winner at 2 p.m. between NJIT and host Army, under first-year coach Katie Kuester, a former Saint Joseph’s star and assistant coach under Cindy Griffin.

Lehigh (17-15) lost its WNIT opener 72-62 at Monmouth (21-11), the winners moving Sunday at 7 p.m. to Cleveland State.

Belle Bramer, was 8-14 from the field scoring 19 points for the season-ending Nountain Hawks.

On Wednesday, Richmond’s NCAA appearance lasted shorter than last season, losing 75-56 in a First Four game to Nebraska (19-12) led by Britt Prince with 22 points, shooting 10-14 from the field while Broomall’s Maggie Doogan, the A-10 olayer of the year, shot 8-13 from the field for 24 points with 10 boards in her final game for the Spiders (26-8).

The Huskers’ 17-0 start of the third quarter took care of business moving them to Friday’s game against six seed Baylor.

The other three games had Missouri State win 85-75 over Stephen F. Austin; Southern win 65-53 over Samford; and Virginia edge Arizona State 57-55 as Kymora Johnson scored 17 for the Cavaliers (20-11) and the go-ahead score with a three-pointer with 30.6 seconds left against the Sun Devils (24-11).

Virginia last appeared in the NCAA tournament in 2018 while Arizona State last appeared a year later.

Looking Ahead NCAA Weekend Highlights

On Friday, at 3:30 p.m. (ESPN2), WCC champion Gonzaga, a 12 seed meets 5 seed Ole Miss while Missouri State, under former Notre Dame star Beth Cunningham, who played for the Philadelphia Rage in the ABL, meets Texas at 4 p.m. (ESPN), Michigan hosts Holy Cross, featuring area players Kaitlyn Flagan and Hannah Griffin at 5:30 p.m. (ESPN2) and at 8 p.m. (ESPN) No.10 Tennessee, entering in a seven-game losing streak plays No. 7 N.C. State.

On Saturday, overall No. 1 snd unbeaten Connecticut begins play at 3 p.m. on ABC, while Ivy champ and No. 9 Princeton plays No. 8 Oklahoma State at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN2., Fairfield plays Notre Dame at 2 p.m. on ESPN, James Madison plays Kentucky at 2:30 p.m. on ESPNU, Rhode Island plays Alabama at 2:30 p.m. (ESPNews).

The Guru’s NCAA March Madness Report: UConn’s the Overall One Followed by UCLA, Texas and South Carolina

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

On the verge of reaching a labor settlement with its players, according to reports, the WNBA was nice enough to stay out of the way of the Selection Sunday announcement of the 68-team NCAA women’s basketball tournament draw, a prime-time event on ESPN that was not shy of going head to head with the Oscars all of which illustrates how much things have changed.

Selection night for a long time was Monday and the Oscars the same night a week later.

One staple which has been consistent remained as such as soon as the director queued the lights and cameras and the TV talent took it right from the top revealing the committee was making unbeaten UConn (34-0), the defending champs, the overall No. 1 pick.

Last year’s other three Final Four participants garnered the other No. 1s but in a different order, UCLA was next in line, followed by Texas and Dawn Staley’s South Carolina squad whom the Huskies routed in last season’s championship game.

In recent weeks UCLA, having spent its second year in the Big Ten, was drawing much support for the top honor off the data components but in a narrow outcome the committee went to the human element, the eye test, to render its decision.

“That’s where I’m at,” said Charlie Crème, ESPN’S bracketologist, who begins churning out forecasted matchups as soon as the season tips off in early November.

“It’s close, but when you watch them, they look like the best team.”

The Huskies are bolstered by the combo of Sarah Strong and senior Azzi Fudd, left to keep the machine humming after the graduation of WNBA rookie of the year Paige Bueckers, but UCLA’s Lauren Betts is also a strong force in making the Bruins almost as unbeatable  with just a slim loss to Texas back in November.

UConn has already had six perfect seasons as part of 12 trophies and is trying to become the first team to repeat as champion since the program won four straight titles from 2013-16 led by Breanna Stewart.

“When you break it all down, in the next three weeks, if we are lucky enough to play all three weeks, you have to beat the best teams,” said Huskies Hall of Fame coach GenoAuriemma who grew up in Norristown. “It doesn’t matter if you are the 1, 2, 3 or whatever (seed) you are.

“There are some teams in there that we have already played or just recently played. Everybody is going in front of the media and say our bracket is the toughest, what our matchups are and it is just pointless.”

UConn was joined by UCLA, Texas and South Carolina as No. 1 seeds.

UConn, which is led by stars Sarah Strong and Azzi Fudd, opens the tournament at home against 16th-seeded UTSA and will play in the Fort Worth Regional. If seeds hold, the Huskies could face No. 2 Vanderbilt, which is coached by former UConn great Shea Ralph. This is the 23rd time UConn has earned a No. 1 seed and first since 2021.

The Longhorns, who joined the Southeastern Conference last season, gained two wins over South Carolina, including a dominating triumph in the SEC title game to jump ahead of the Gamecocks in the top of the bracket.

Several years ago, the tournament format changed from four to two sites with eight teams each – this season at Fort Worth, Texas and Sacramento, and next year the Xfinity Mobile Center in South Philly will be one of the sites.

As for the Final Four in three weeks, while bringing the heat, the heat will be waiting in Phoenix for everyone.

Locally, Villanova, which finished second to UConn in the Big East, built a strong resume and was given a 10th seed, ending a three-year NCAA drought since advancing to the Sweet 16 with senior sensation Maddy Siegrist.

The Wildcats (25-7) will face seventh seed Texas Tech (25-7) Friday at 8:30 p.m. on ESPNU in Baton Rouge, La., and if advancing would likely face two-seed LSU (27-5) under veteran coach Kim Mulkey, whose team scored 100+ points in a slew of games.

“You have a game there, you want to battle, you want to prove yourself,” said Villanova coach Denise Dillon at Sunday night's watch party at Finneran Pavilion. “That's our position right now, that we belong there and we want to go.”

After winning another Ivy crown, No. 23 Princeton got a nine seed in the same Sacramento 2 Region as Villanova and have been sent to Los Angeles, Saturday, playing eight seed Oklahoma State and if advancing would likely face UCLA in Pauley Pavilion.

The Tigers getting the AQ opened the door for some bubble teams and Richmond with Broomall’s Maggie Doogan will play Nebraska Wednesday at 7 p.m. on ESPN2 at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Saint Joseph’s was bypassed from being chosen for the three-year old WBIT field, in part crowded out by the large number of No. 1 seeds in conference tourneys that were upset and gained automatic bids.

The Hawks no longer support the WNIT, but Drexel learned Sunday it has an invite and will learn Monday of its site and opponent.

The NCAA has gotten much deeper as opposed to the days the event was a warmup to the finals.

Tennessee, under the legendary and late coach Pat Summitt, was one of those teams and while the Vols, now under second-year coach Kim Caldwell, are the only team in every NCAA tournament, they took a deep seven-game plunge at the end and are holding a 10 seed playing seven seed N.C. State at 8 p.m. Friday night on ESPN in Ann Arbor, Mich.

The second seeded Wolverines will play Patriot League champion Holy Cross at 5:30 p.m. on ESPN2.

The Crusaders, whose roster includes Plymouth Whitemarsh grad Kaitlyn Flanagan and Hannah Griffin, a daughter of Saint Joseph’s coach Cindy Griffin, eliminated Lehigh in Sunday’s title game.

Though some fans off the recent mega ESPN women’s deal with the NCAA seeing their mid-major teams in the first rounds on platforms such as ESPNews and ESPNU wonder what’s going on, an ample amount of the elite teams will air on ESPN, ESPN, and ABC.

Former Saint Joseph’s star Laura Ziegler is on second-seeded Louisville, which plays Vermont Saturday at noon on ESN, while former Penn star Jordan Obi is on Kentucky, which plays James Madison at 2:30 p.m. Saturday on ESPNU at West Virginia.

Charleston, which won the Coastal Athletic Association, Sunday, is the only new team in this year’s field.

More to come.

The Guru’s March Madness Report Day 10: Drexel Turnover With Nine Seconds Left Leads to Hofstra Overtime Win in CAA Semis; No. 23 Princeton Adds Another Ivy Crown; More Upsets to No. 1 Seeds in Title Games; Top 16 Revealed

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

No. 23 Princeton turned on the jets at the end of the Ivy League title game against Harvard as the dynasty continues with a 63-53 victory while Drexel (21-10) short circuited right before regulation time expired in the third seed Dragons’ semifinal in the Coastal Athletic Association allowing 10th seed Hofstra (11-21) to win 53-49 in overtime and move to Sunday afternoon’s championship against top seed Charleston.

That’s the way it went for the two locals on a day eight more conferences declared their champions and saw several more top seeds fall for the 68-team NCAA national field which will be revealed Sunday night at 8 p.m. on ESPN followed at nine by the 32-team WBIT field revealed on ESPN+.

The WNIT field will also be revealed.

One more local has a chance at the Big Dance out of the Patriot League among the last four conferences to gain automatic qualifiers Sunday afternoon when defending champion and fourth seed Lehigh visits Holy Cross at noon on the CBS Sports Network.

In a new wrinkle as a teaser the NCAA committee Saturday afternoon announced the top 16 teams alphabetically that will host but not their seed or region.

Changes from the last reveal saw Maryland and Michigan State drop out and Big 12 champion West Virginia and North Carolina enter after making deep runs in their conferences.

Meanwhile in the CAA the curse or magic of the deep seed run, depending on whose viewpoint, continued – the last three titles going to No. 7 Monmouth, then a new member, No. 7 Drexel, No. 9 William & Mary, and now the deepest yet as a contender in No. 10 Hofstra.

The Pride will be a deep underdog as would have Drexel, which reminiscent several years ago at Delaware was three plays away from a title and went into a closing meltdown against Towson, then coached by Temple’s Diane Richardson.

Saturday was just as agonizing for the Dragons in the low scoring game at the WNBA’s Washington Mystics CareFirst Arena where nine seconds remained in regulation, and they had a two-point lead and the ball but lost it on an inbounds pass stolen by Chloe Sterling who raced down the court to feed Sandra Magolico with a layup and the game tied 44-44 with three seconds left.

Hofstra, heading to its first CAA title game since 2015, went down 2-0 and then took off on a 7-0 run.

Ema Karim, the lone Pride player in double digits, was 6-9 from the field, including 3-4 from deep for 17 points while Sterling had nine points and five assists.

Drexel’s Amaris Baker had a game-high 19 points while Deja Evans had a double double with 15 points and 11 boards.

The Dragons had a seven-point lead in the third quarter cut to three heading to the fourth quarter and then up 44-40 with 1:56 left when Hofstra cut it to two and then cashed in with the steal.

“Obviously, so much credit to Hofstra, we’ve been in those shoes before and understand what it takes and they dud what they needed to do today,” said Drexel coach Any Mallon.

“My team and the way it ended is not something we wanted, and we talk about it all the time. We go back to what my dad said when I was young, and I had a temper when I didn’t win every game, and he said, ‘You win some and you lose some.’”

She paid tribute to her seniors Baker and Grace O’Neill who will likely play in the WBIT or WNIT.

‘Right to the end they’re winners.”

“We played great defense,” Baker said. “Sometimes the ball just doesn’t go in, that’s what it is.”

“As we look back at the season, these were two of our worst games against Drexel and for this team to show up, the belief that they had, how hard they played, and had faith in everybody in our locker room and come out here with the competitiveness with a team like Drexel I’m so proud what they did and hard they worked,” said Hofstra coach Danielle Atkinson, now in her seventh season.

In the opening game, Charleston (26-5), the No. 1 seed, made easy work of fourth seed Stony Brook (17-15).

Taylor Barbot had 10 points and 11 assists, third highest in the history of the tournament, for the Cougars and her sister Taryn had 24 points, seven rebounds, six assists and six steals.

Princeton on Top Again

The 23rd ranked Tigers (26-3) replicated their season in one afternoon in the Ivy title game at Cornell’s Newman Arena.

Since 2010 before Ivy Madness started as a four-team tourney and through the nine to date Princeton has made 13 NCAA appearances, including last year as an at-large team snd seven as tourney champs.

During this season, Columbia swept the Tigers but gave the No. 1 seed back to Princeton, losing to Harvard the last game and then losing in overtime Friday to the Crimson in the semifinals.

Princeton easily beat Brown in the semifinals and had this one handled until Harvard (18-11) tied it three times in the fourth quarter.

But late in the game with the last tie at 51-51, coach Carla Berube’s team took off on an 11-0 run into the last minute to win 63-53.

Fadima Tall, voted the Most Outstanding Player, led the winners with 20 points, while Ashley Chea scored 13, and Olivia Hutcherson scored 12 points while Harvard’s Karlee White scored 15 points and Olivia Jones scored 13.

“We had to fight to the very end and that last three minutes; there was really some great basketball,” Berube said. “I Love the way we shared it and got the big stops and that karma you know karma that's Princeton basketball,” Berube said.

“We definitely felt like we fell short last year, and we felt we had something like taking from us last year, and we knew coming into this we had to sweep teams that we've beaten twice, a team that we haven't beaten at all, or teams besten twice again,” Tall said.

“We told ourselves; it's us that's going to win this game; it's us who's going to lose this game.”

More Upsets While Tickets Punched

Seven other conferences claimed titles and shockers continued where in the American Conference after going unbeaten most of the league slate Rice (28-5) fell 54-40 to six seed UTSA while in Conference USA top seed Louisiana Tech (26-6) ended a 19-game winning streak and  fell 43-38 to six seed Missouri State (22-12), the first CUSA title for the program, now coached by former Notre Dame star Beth Cunningham.

It’s the lowest combined title score in CUSA history and second lowest in NCAA conference history.

In other conference tournaments where the top seed prevailed, Miami of Ohio (28-6) won 68-58 over Toledo (17-15) in the Mid-American; Howard (26-7) won 53-46 over Norfolk State (18-14) in the MEAC; and Cal Baptist (23-10) won 74-58 over Abilene Christian (23-10) in the WAC.

In two other conferences where the top seed had already fallen, UC San Diego (24-8) won 60-48 over Hawaii (22-11) to claim the Big West; and Southern U. (19-13) won 73-56 over Alabama State (17-15) to claim the SWAC.

In the semifinals, top seed Murray State (30-3) won 72-59 over Northern Illinois (18-14) in the Missouri Valley, while Evansville (10-24) won 75-70 in overtime over Illinois State (20-13) and the winners meet Sunday at 2 p.m. on ESPN2.

The fourth conference joining the other three Sunday to complete the field of auto qualifiers, FDU (29-4), the top seed, while host two-seed Long Island (21-10) at noon on ESPNU as FDU coach Stephanie Gaitley goes for her second straight Northeast Conference crown.

The Top 16

Here are the teams who will be hosts in the first two rounds, holding seeds 1-4 in each region, the same four as last year expected to be overall No. 1s but in a different order with Uconn and UCLA will be 1 or 2, which is which still debated, Texas three and South Carolina four.

Duke

Iowa

Louisville

LSU

Michigan

Minnesota

North Carolina

Ohio State

Oklahoma

South Carolina

TCU

Texas

UCLA

UConn

Vanderbilt

West Virginia

 

The two regionals eight teams each are at Fort Worth and Sacramento, Philadelphia has one next year, and the Final Four is in Phoenix.