The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Sorting through UConn’s potential seeding
The UConn women's basketball team will learn the NCAA Tournament bracket Sunday, less than a week after completing a three-game sprint through the Big East Tournament.
After losing two games in February and falling in the national rankings, the Huskies made a resounding statement at Mohegan Sun and completed the tournament with a win over Villanova.
Was it enough for the NCAA Selection Committee to give UConn (29-5) a No. 1 seed in the tournament?
ESPN bracketologist Charlie Creme doesn't think so.
“I don't think they can get to a 1 because none of the teams in front of them are playing to lose and they're not playing to win to move up,” Creme said on a media call Friday. “But they did move up in my mind with that performance in the Big East Tournament. The evaluation of UConn this year is gonna be interesting ... they have as many (Top 25 wins) as any team in the country.”
Creme points out that the evaluation of UConn has changed because Azzi Fudd is back from a knee injury that sidelined her for 14 games.
“Clearly she made a difference because the way they played in the Big East Tournament was a far different than the way they played the last two weeks of the regular season,” Creme said. “So the committee's viewpoint on those injuries, because let's remember in that first (Top 16) reveal UConn was a number one seed and I asked the question, the resume on paper is great, but the resume on paper was accumulated with a couple of players that are currently not playing. So how did you factor in those player availability criteria of the process?
“And I think the committee chairs sort of brushed that question off to some degree, referred back to the resume as it stands,
sort of a black and white. But then I think they amended that in the second reveal to some degree.”
Creme's bracket updated Friday afternoon has UConn as a No. 2 seed in one of the Greenville regionals, with Indiana No. 1. He has South Florida, Mississippi State and Fairleigh Dickinson in Storrs next weekend.
“I think just enough other teams performed exceptionally well, to keep UConn off the 1-line given their losses to Marquette and St. John's,” he said.
The No. 1 seeds in Creme's latest bracket: South Carolina, Stanford and Virginia Tech. The other 2-seeds are Utah, Iowa and Maryland.
Asked if he thought UConn's run of 14 consecutive Final Four appearances is in jeopardy, Creme said “absolutely.”
“There are enough other good teams,” he said. “It's going to be very critical to me as to where they're placed and to with whom they're placed in the bracket as to whether they can. And I think the coaching staff would agree with this, this is going to be their biggest challenge of trying to keep that streak intact. In the last couple of years, they've kind of had to grind a little bit to get to the Final Four. This is going to take grinding probably to another level. And not just because of them because of the rest of the field, but also because — even with Fudd and (Caroline) Ducharme hopefully playing — the depth still is troubling and they have gone through quite a long season of weary legs and they have some time to recover but then how do they respond to that second game in three days if we're talking about in the Elite Eight or something like that? It's going to be a little bit more of a challenge.”
As for defending champion South Carolina, Creme said he would take the Gamecock over the field.
“They're the overwhelming favorite in my mind to win the whole thing,” he said.