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.

 

The Guru’s March Madness Report Day Nine: Drexel Advances to CAA Semifinals Against Upset Winner Hofstra While No. 23 Princeton Meets Narrow Winner Harvard for Ivy Crown; Vermont Repeats as America East Champs

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

No. 23 Princeton (25-3) and Drexel took care of business in their first steps in their respective conference tournaments Friday and even had some help in the big picture scenario making three area teams still alive to join presumed Villanova to hear their names called Sunday night at 8 p.m. on ESPN when the NCAA 68-team field is announced.

After waiting for the single-game round one to be completed Wednesday and a day of four round two affairs on Thursday, and three games ahead of getting back in action in quarterfinal play Friday night in the Coastal Athletic Association event at the WNBA Washington Mystics’ CareFirst Arena, three-seed Drexel (21-9) held its own heading into the final period with a five-point lead and then erupted on a 14-2 run to dominate No. 6 Elon 68-53 and head to Saturday’s semifinals for the ninth time in the past decade playing in the 4:30 p.m. second contest.

As for the help, instead of meeting No. 2 Campbell, who beat the Dragons in their lone meeting early in the conference portion of the season, Drexel will face 10th seed Hofstra (10-21), which became the lowest seed in the history of the tourney to reach the semifinals through upsetting the Camels 55-50.

A word of caution, though, low seeds have had success in recent seasons becoming bracket busters, including Drexel, which two years ago took the title as a No. 7 seed.

There almost was even more help, No. 1 seed Charleston (25-5) barely dodged an upset strike from eighth seed and defending tourney champion William & Mary, 58-55, winning the game against the Tribe (17-14) on the strength of Sophia Tougas’ career day beyond the ark with six makes for all 18 of her points while Taryn Barbot, the conference player of the year, with 17 points, four boards, and five assists.

An upset of the Cougars seemed ready to happen when William & Mary’s Natalie Fox scored to bring the Tribe within three with 1:31 left in regulation.

But that was to be William & Mary’s final points the contest.

In the 2 p.m. semifinal game, Charleston will face fourth-seed Stony Brook (18-14) which defended fifth-seed Monmouth 51-45, ending the Hawks’ season at 20-11, though its possible a bid could come from the WNIT.

In Hofstra’s win, Alarice Gooden scored 14 points, Emma Von Essen scored 11 points, and Chloe Sterling scored 10.

In Drexel’s win, All-CAA guard Amaris Baker led the way with 16 points while freshman Bria Watkins scored 13 points, grabbed six boards and swiped four steals.

The Dragons forced the Phoenix into 22 turnovers leading to 30 points.

“I can’t be more pleased with this group today,” said Drexel coach Amy Mallon. “This first game when you come out, there’s just so much tension, and I was just happy with the bench, the way they came in.

“And that’s what you need this time of the season and our two freshman and Molly Rullo scoring when we needed them to.”

I couldn’t have done it without my team, the way they came through with their passes, their stops, their steals,” Watkins said. “They motivate me to keep going.”

“The big thing,” Mallon said of how the game evolved, “we talked about what we need to do on the defensive end, obviously we were struggling a little bit. We came out, we started moving the ball. We were taking quick shots. We were waiting to see the open player,” she continued.

“I think our patience at times became part of our defense and we did a great job moving the ball and everyone getting good looks.

“That’s how we play and when we’re doing that good things happen for our team.”

Princeton Routs Brown; Harvard Edges Columbia for an Overtime Upset

Bubble teams elsewhere were buoyed with No. 1 seed Princeton in the Ivy Madness semifinals at Cornell’s Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y., easily jumping to a 21-3 first-quarter lead and handling No. 4 Brown 65-51, since the belief is a Tigers title win avoids a bid steal and two-team entry following the three advancing last year.

That was caused when when three-seed Harvard beat Columbia for the championship, and in game two Friday night the Crimson dealt the Lions more heartache with a 67-65 win in overtime presenting Princeton in Saturday’s championship with the lesser of two evils, having been swept by Columbia during the season.

Madison St. Rose led the nationally ranked Tigers with18 points against the Bears (16-11), while Ashley Chea scored 12, and Fadima Tall and Skye Belker each scored 11 points. Olivia Hutcherson had eight points and nine rebounds.

“You know, it’s about survive and advance this time of year, and like I said, really, really proud of my group for, yeah, getting this victory and playing in the championship tomorrow,” said Princeton coach Carla Berube.

Off the way the Tigers exploded from the outset, St. Rose, said the team needed to avoid a bad start and Brown making it a tough game.

“We really made sure that in this game we had a good start, and I feel like we were really sharing the ball,” she said. “We were executing what we needed to execute, and we were playing Princeton basketball, and like everything was just running really smoothly.”

At one point during the Tigers press conference, Berube quipped of the next game that would yield their title game opponent, “We hope it goes into triple overtime. That’d be nice.”

That didn’t happen, but the sense of her wish did in a battle all the way between Harvard (18-10) and Columbia (20-8).

The winning Crimson were led by Abigail Wright with 18 points, Karlee White added 16 points, and Saniyah Glenn scored 12.

The Columbia loss wasted an heroic effort by Riley Weiss, the Ivy player of the year, who carried the Lions on her shoulders scoring 25 points, shooting 9-for-18 from the field and 4-8 from deep while Mia Broom scored 12 and Susie Raifu scored 10 points.

Down eight late in regulation, Columbia closed to force the extra period which ended when with Weiss taking a shot, the official blowing the whistle calling a foul on Harvard but then going to the monitor revealed the call was made after time expired.

“I mean, we knew it was going to be a heavyweight match, all right, between these two teams,” said Harvard coach Carrie Moore. “Every time we play them, it is like this and this time of the year, you know, I wouldn’t expect anything less.

“A little déjà vu moment, because, you know, championship game here last year, you know, they also had a shot to tie it. I feel like we’ve really prepped all year long to learn how to finish basketball games. We weren’t great all year long, but we are finishing basketball games at the right time and just couldn’t be more proud to be their coach.”

“You just have to have a consistency in how you do things,” said Columbia coach Megan Griffith, who is a native of King of Prussia. That’s been our problem all year. We just have a lack of maturity that allows us to be as consistent as possible and show up throughout the game and not just in crunch time of a game.

“Not being able to execute on that last play was really hard. Just another player making another mistake. It’s a play you’ve run a million times in practice and the only thing I can do is … I haven’t taught them well enough. You just have to eat that, because as their coach, for us to move on, I’ll carry the burden so we can be better the rest of March.”

Columbia is hopeful of a WBIT bid, the Ivies don’t allow teams to go to the WNIT, which the Lions went to the title game several years ago before the NCAA introduced the former tournament.

The 24-team field will be revealed on ESPN+ at 9 p.m.

The other local still in play is Lehigh in the Patriot League, the fourth seed, which Sunday afternoon at noon will attempt to repeat the title playing at Holy Cross.

The National Scene: Vermont Repeats as America East Champs

The Catamounts at home in Burlington as the No. 1 seed became the 19th team over the back end of the current two weeks to claim one of the 31 automatic qualifiers easily beating No. 2 seed Maine 61-43, initially falling behind 9-2 and then reversing direction with a 12-2 run to end the first period.

Nikola Priede repeated her Most Outstanding Player honor averaging 17.3 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 3.3 blocks in Vermont’s three games, all at home as the top seed.

Against Maine, she had 14 points, eight boards, and a pair of blocks.

In other action Friday, another No. 1 seed was taken down, the 11th so far, though a few from Power 4 leagues have no worries.

In the Big West, Hawaii in overtime upset UC Irvine, the regular season champ, and will play Saturday for the title at 6 p.m. on ESPN+ against UC San Diego, one of eight championship games day, including the Ivy League.

In the other six, Toledo will play Miami of Ohio in the Mid-American in Cleveland at 11 a.m. on CBSSN. The SWAC at 1 p.m. on ESPNU will have Southern playing Alabama State.

At 3:30 p.m. the WAC in Las Vegas will be contested between Abilene Christian and top seed Cal Baptist, while at 4 p.m. top seed Howard and Norfolk State will play for the MEAC crown on ESPNEWS.

Louisiana Tech, the top seed, meets Missouri State at 5:30 p.m. on CBSSN for the crown in Conference USA, while the American will be between top seed Rice and UTSA at 9:30 p.m. on ESPNU.

On Sunday, besides the Patriot, the Northeast Conference at noon on ESPNU will feature Long Island U at top seed, defending champion, and host FDU, coached by former Villanova star Stephanie Gaitley.

Saturday’s CAA semifinal winners will play at 2 p.m. on CBSSN, the same time the Missouri Valley Conference championship will air on ESPN2.