Agreed, this is quite a swan song for the former Big East, with five of the final 8 in the two final fours from the B/E. It is still odd, talking with UConn fans who have absolutley no idea of who they will be playing next year - it hasn't really sunk in with them yet either. At least Gino will be able to schedule a top notch non-conference schedule for his team.
I like the single elimination concept too. Just an amazing amount of history in the NCAA tournaments over the years and a lot of them involve monumental upsets (Nova '85 anyone?). Recall that both Notre Dame and Texas A&M women in 2011 had lost to UConn and Baylor respectively three times in-season but won the ones that counted in the NCAA tournament in memorable games with both advancing to the title game. UConn just repaid that one on ND this year. The way that Stewart is playing now, I don't think ND would have been able to win a three game series from UConn.
Louisville definately is not one of the top ten teams this year, but they did what they had to do to get to the championship game. Walz is just an outstanding coaching talent, enjoys the game and is able to get every last bit of effort from his team in buying into his program. He was in the stands during the second game last night and welcomed everyone. I did get to contratulate him as he made his way to the ESPN studio between halves of the second game for his interview. Just a class guy.
If UConn wins tomorrow night we will probably be out of the building before they bring the ladder out to cut down the nets. If Louisville manages to pull off the stunner we will probably hang around for quite a while as that will have been one for the ages.
