Pac-10 women gamer high NCAA seeds
Jeremy Forrest Emerald
Shawntinice Polk (00), guarding Oregon's Kedzie Gunderson, and the Arizona Wildcats play Notre Dame in the first round.
Three Pac-10 teams are
seeded 1 Oth or better
in the NCAA Tournament
Jesse Thomas
Sports Reporter
The stage is set for the madness
to begin.
For women’s Pac-10 basketball,
three teams will represent the con
ference amidst the 61 other squads.
Arizona is the No. 6 seed in the
East and will face No. 11-seeded
Notre Dame. In the West, Wash
ington sits in ninth to face Wis
consin-Green Bay. The Huskies
and the Phoenix will battle at
McArthur Court.
Stanford, the Pac-10 Champion
and No. 3 seed, will face No. 14-seed
ed Western Michigan in the first
round in Palo Alto, Calif. UCLA,
which appeared to be a bubble team,
did not make the bracket.
Arizona will go head-to-head
against Notre Dame at Bramlage
Coliseum in Manhattan, Kan. Notre
Dame (19-10, 10-6 Big East) won
four of its last five games to finish
the season.
The Irish are led by sophomore
Jacquelin Batteast at 14.9 points
and 8.3 rebounds per game. In
2002, the Irish went to the tourna
ment and lost in the second round
to Tennessee.
If Arizona (22-8,13-5 Pac-10) can
win in the first round, the Wildcats
will face either Kansas State or Har
vard. Arizona could then advance to
the regional where they would most
likely face No. 2-seeded Purdue.
“We are obviously going to be
tested early, but I think it’s really
going to help us,” Arizona head
coach Joan Bonvicini told the Daily
Wildcat. “I have a lot of confidence
in this team. We are very athletic,
we have good shooters and we have
good depth.”
Washington (22-7, 13-5 Pac-10)
finished second in the Pac-10
standings, but the Huskies will
have their hands full against Wis
consin-Green Bay.
UWGB (27-3, 15-1 Horizon) re
ceived an automatic bid as the
eighth seed in the tournament after
winning the Horizon League
Women’s Basketball Championship.
The Phoenix are led by senior
guard and tournament MVP Kristy
Loiselle. Loiselle averages 14.4
points per game and shoots better
than 57 percent from the field. This
will be the fifth tournament appear
ance in the last six years for Wiscon
sin-Green Bay.
If Washington can route the
Phoenix, they will probably play
No. 1 seed Louisiana State or pos
sibly 16th-seed SW Texas. Wash
ington will clearly have a tough
first two rounds before making
the regional.
“This team has so much poten
tial,” captain Loree Payne told the
Seattle Times. “If we put it together,
we can have a good run. It's up to us
at this point.”
Stanford (26-4, 15-3 Pac-10) will
do battle with Western Michigan
(20-11, 10-6 MAC) in their home
town. The Cardinal dominated all
year, winning the regular-season ti
tle and the Pac-10 Tournament
Championship.
The Broncos received an auto
matic bid to the NCAA Tournament
after winning the Mid-American
Conference Championship for the
first time since 1984-85. Western
Michigan earned its first 20-win
season since 1977-78, and this will
be the Broncos’ first tourney ap
pearance since 1985.
The Broncos are led by senior for
ward Kristin Koetsier, who averages
17.3 points and 6.2 rebounds per
game and has earned six double
doubles on the year.
If the Cardinal can get past the
first round, they will face the win
ner of the Minnesota-Tulane
matchup. And if Stanford advances
to the regional, it could face No. 2
seeded Texas, provided upsets
don’t occur.
The Pac-10 teams represent a
small majority, yet with each team
seeded in the top-10, anything
is possible.
Contact the sports reporter
at jessethomas@dailyemerald.com.
UConn keeps top
seed despite loss
Mel Greenberg
Knight Ridder Newspapers
PHILADELPHIA — Despite the
loss to Villanova that ended Con
necticut's record 70-game winning
streak last week, the Huskies were
still No. 1 Sunday when the 64-team
women's NCAA Tournament field
was announced.
The Huskies received the overall
top seeding and were made No. 1 in
the East Regional. They remain
strong favorites to win the national
title. But thanks to last week’s upset,
they won’t be the prohibitive fa
vorites they were a year ago when
they went 39-0.
If UConn advances to the
Women’s Final Four in Atlanta next
month, it might be matched in the
semifinals against Louisiana State,
which received the No. 1 seeding in
the West.
The No. 1 seeding in the Mideast
went to Tennessee, which will host
the regional semifinals and final,
while Duke received the top seeding
in the Midwest.
There were few surprises, if any,
among the other 12 teams that re
ceived the highest seedings.
Texas Tech, Villanova, Purdue and
Texas all received No. 2 seedings as
projected. North Carolina, Kansas
State, Mississippi State and Stanford
were named No. 3 seeds. Penn State,
Rutgers, Vanderbilt and Ohio State
were noneontroversial No. 4 seeds.
All season, the Big East Confer
ence, which includes UConn, had
been likened to the traditionally
powerful Southeastern Conference.
The validity of that comparison was
reflected in the Big East’s matching
the SEC with a conference-record
seven teams in the field.
Miami, despite being relatively
low in the Ratings Percentage In
dex at 67, helped itself by advanc
ing to the Big East semifinals with
an upset of Rutgers before losing to
Villanova. The RPI is used to help
pick at-large teams for the NCAA
Tournament.
Conference USA was a mild sur
prise, getting five teams in the field
after Texas Christian won the
league tournament. Charlotte, the
regular-season league champion,
had an RPI of 60, according to one
published report.
Virginia, at 16-13 taken as an at
large team, has the most losses of
any such team in the history of the
women’s tournament.
© 2003, The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
2003 Division I Women's Basketball Championship
First and Second Rounds • March 22 a 24
McArthur Court • Eugene, Oregon
All session/single game tickets: S12/S6 with student ID
For tickets call 346-4461
The NCAA salutes its 360,000 student-athletes participating in 22 sports