Stanford tabbed top overall seed in field
UConn is in its normal spot with a No. 1 seed for the women’s NCAA Tournament. Familiar territory for Stanford and South Carolina, too.
It’s a brand new day for North Carolina State. And the Huskies, while used to their position in the bracket, are facing some uncertainty after coach Geno Auriemma tested positive for the coronavirus.
N.C. State is a No. 1 seed for the first time, joining Stanford, South Carolina and Connecticut on the top lines for the San Antonio-themed regions for the women’s tourney. The Cardinal earned the overall No. 1 when the field was revealed Monday.
“The No. 1 seed is a great honor, obviously,” N.C. State coach Wes Moore said. “Y’all know me, I’d rather just stayed a No. 2 and laid low.”
Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer downplayed being the top choice.
“What I really tell our team is seeds do not matter,” she said. “It’s not like you get any extra points when you show up at the gym.”
VanDerveer said being healthy and excited to play was most important. Teams basically will be locked down in hotels except to head to practice or games as part of the stringent COVID-19 safety protocols.
Auriemma’s Texas arrival will be delayed. He will remain in isolation for 10 days and can rejoin the team March 24. The other members of UConn’s travel party have tested negative for COVID-19.
Auriemma will miss the Huskies’ opening game against High Point — one of four first-timers in the NCAAs — and a potential second-round matchup against either Syracuse or South Dakota State.
“I’m an innocent bystander right now. I’m going to sit back and watch them do their thing,” he said. “(Assistant coach Chris Dailey) is undefeated in tournament play. I don’t think you can get a coach who has a better record in the tournament than she does.”
While the coronavirus caused many disruptions to the schedule throughout the regular season, it looks as if most of the teams in the field made it to the tournament healthy.
Stanford, which will open against Utah Valley, had quite the odyssey this season because of the coronavirus. It had to play on the road for nine weeks after Santa Clara County health officials announced they were prohibiting all contact sports in late November.
The Cardinal, who are looking for their third national championship, are the top seed in the Alamo region. The Hemisfair, Mercado and River Walk are the other region names.
For the past few years, earning one of the top 16 seeds would put a team at home in the tournament’s first two rounds, but that’s not the case this March. Every game will be played in the San Antonio area because of the pandemic, with the last four rounds tipping off at the Alamodome.
The national semifinals take place April 2, and the championship game will be held April 4.
When they’re at their best, it’s more than just about knocking down 3pointers and locking down the defense for the Colorado Buffaloes.
Led by a tightly knit group of upperclassmen who have fostered a high degree of team chemistry within the program, fans often can tell the Buffs are playing well without even looking at the scoreboard.
On the floor, they’re clapping and encouraging one another on every play. On the bench, they’re celebrating every little effort. And in the empty arenas of the 2020-21 college basketball season, a careful listener might hear music pumping out of the Buffs’ locker room before they hit the floor for pregame warmups.
It’s not as if all of that was completely missing on Saturday, when the Buffs lost the Pac-12 Conference championship game against Oregon State. If anything, according to head coach Tad Boyle, CU was almost too intense, wanting that championship prize so desperately the Buffs got away from the loose-butfocused identity that led to six consecutive wins before Saturday’s title-game defeat.
As the Buffs prepare for their first NCAA Tournament appearance in five years, and the first for every player on CU’s roster, Boyle’s club already is looking to strike that difficult yet critical balance. The Buffs want to bring the intensity, of course, but not at the expense of the loose style that has served CU so well.
The fifth-seeded Buffs will face 12th-seeded Georgetown in the opening game of Saturday’s first round play at Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse (10:15 a.m. MT, CBS). Though the AP Top 25 is rather inconsequential at this point, on Monday the Buffs moved up one spot to No. 22 in this week’s poll.
“Coach talked to us (Sunday). He wants to deal with us as a team and figure out what kind of jitters there were in the championship game,” CU point guard McKinley Wright IV said. “He just wants us to play free and have fun. (Against OSU) I don’t feel like we were having too much fun. We were so uptight and we wanted to win so bad, we were frustrated with every little mistake. We have to understand that mistakes are a part of the game.”
CU didn’t play entirely poorly against OSU, but the Buffs certainly made a number of uncharacteristic mistakes. The Buffs committed five of their 10 turnovers within the game’s first nine minutes. Three of those giveaways occurred on offensive fouls and another on a shot-clock violation.
The Buffs also crashed back to Earth at the freethrow line, going 12-for-20 in their worst showing of the season. As Wright alluded to, there is no such thing as a perfect game, and the Buffs are certain to make a few mistakes against the surging Hoyas.
The Buffs generally have done well at putting lessons from losses into action, as evidenced by losing backto-back games only once this season. Taking the ones from the OSU defeat, and letting the inevitable mistakes against Georgetown slide off their collective backs, could prove to be the key to the Buffs advancing.