Bracketology update 3-11-13

[Coach4pride]

Nova women as an 8 seed vs Miami. Hurricanes are solid. The Canes had wins vs Penn St. and Duke this year.

The Sweeney injury hurt us but hopefully she will get healthy and be ok. That was a vicious shot she took. I think a lot of players would have been knocked out after that hit. Tough lady.

This post was edited on 3/11 9:47 PM by Coach4pride

Just get in the Dance and go from there

 

[tpenter]

The Sweeney injury and the loss to Syracuse really hurt our chance at a better seeding. Creme's eight seed for us is about right but that pretty much leaves us only two venues to play in - in California with probable #1 seed Standford or Texas with #1 seed Baylor. A long way to go for fans and a pretty certain second round defeat if we managed to win in the first round. The other two #1 seed sites would be Bridgeport (UConn) and probalby Norfolk (Notre Dame), both of which would not be available to Nova since the NCAA does not pair conference teams against each other in the first two rounds.

Hopefully the NCAA tournament committee likes or dislikes us enough to get us a 7 or a 10 seed instead to send us someplace a little more agreeable (like Maryland). I know I can't make either one of those 8-9 sites, unless they play late on a Saturday and I can catch a frequent flyer bargain (not likely on short notice and does any airline even fly to Waco?). No way I could miss a day or two day of work to travel to see them play on a Sunday, Monday or Tuesday night.

With regard to Sweeney's injury - I have not gotten to look at the TV replay yet, and did not see it happen at the game, but the foul was called on Vanessa Moore. I remembered watching Georgetown play at Notre Dame and the same thing happened with either Auchunwa or McBride almost getting knocked out cold with a wicked roundhouse elbow that missed on the backswing but caught her on the return swing. Really ugly to watch on the replay. The Georgetown player was ejected. Sure enough, if you check the box score it was Vanessa Moore. Not sure if she had other instances during the year, but twice in one season is not good.

The team looked so crisp and confident in their Saturday blowout win - the best consistent offensive 40 minutes I have seen Nova put up in my 10+ years of watching them. We may have still lost to Syracuse with Sweeney, but I think the game probably would have taken a whole different spin, both offensively and defensively. Even without being able to stop Alexander, the girls had a chance to pull it out if we could have made a few more shots at the end, or avoided that awful almost 8 minutes without scoring in the first half. Just would have loved to have it played out with our whole team available, noting that we beat them twice before when Coyer was not available.

 

[UncleBill57]

It's pretty hard to imagine us not winning if our best player in so many ways had played especially considering that we got the lead down to two without her in the final few minutes.

 

[Coach4pride]

Bracketology update 3-17-13

As of 3-17-13 Nova Lady Cats are still an 8 seed vs Miami in Spokane.

8 seed for Villanova

 

[tpenter]

Re: Bracketology update 3-17-13


Not much room to move. If we are an 8 or a 9 seed we are destined to play at Stanford or Baylor, unless Stanford gets bumped to a #2 seed (not likely). Best hope is to squeeze out or get a procedural bump to a #7 seed and hope for Duke or Maryland (assuming they are a #2 seeds). In any case, a chance to win a first round game before playing a high seed on their home court.

 

[UncleBill57]

Re: Bracketology update 3-17-13

Wouldn't the committee attempt to seed us closer than Spokane unless they'd be retaliating the BE for dissing Gonzaga by putting us in Spokane.

 

[tpenter]

Re: Bracketology update 3-17-13


Bill - Geographic location takes a back seat to the provision that confernce teams not be pitted against each other in the first two rounds. If we are an 8 or 9 seed, we have to be in a first weekend location with a 1 seed. Since two of the one seeds will be UConn and Notre Dame that only leaves Baylor (in Waco) or Stanford (at Stanford) as a possible site for Nova. Thus we hope for a 7 or a 10 seed to move into the #2 seed locations, two of which are Durham (Duke) and Baton Rouge (California). If Penn State is a 2 seed and playing at Queens, we could not be placed there since that would pit us against host St. Johns. Since Delaware is guaranteed to be playing in Newark and will be probably be a four or five seed, that would eliminate us from that site since that would require us to have a much lower seed than 10th, which is unlikely. The College Park (Maryland) site is probably out of the question for the same reason as Maryland would only be a 3 or 4 seed.

Hopefully the NCAA committee would consider that we beat Syracuse twice and had a much better RPI and SOS rating and give us the procedural bump out of the 8-9 slot instead of them, since the are essentially in the same boat we are in. That Big East Tourney loss to the Cuse had more impact on our standing than a lot of people thought.

Let's make sure we get in first, then worry about where they are sending us. Absolutely everyone thought we were a sure thing in 2005 and we never heard our name called, and then we were not ready to compete in the WNIT and went one and done with a whimper.
This post was edited on 3/17 9:57 PM by tpenter