WBB: NCAA First Round - Duke vs. Tenn-Martin Saturday 3/19 1:30PM

[DU82]

Duke is the second seed in the east, er, Philadelphia, region. The women play Tennessee-Martin in Cameron Saturday at 1:30, after the 7-10 game between Iowa State and Marist. The third seed is DePaul, and the fourth seed is Maryland.

Fortunately, Mike Patrick won't announce our potential 2-3 Sweet Sixteen game, so we won't have to hear him mix up Blue Devils and Blue Demons all game.

[CameronBornAndBred]

I'm going to post my thought on the tourney in general since this thread is already started.
The selection show was the most non-suspenseful show in the history of television! Unless your team was over a two seed, it was pretty obvious where you were going to wind up, so it was no shock that we are the 2 behind UCONN in Philly. I'm ok with that. If we want to be the champions, we have to get past UCONN or the team that beats UCONN at some point. The other seeds are honestly just as tough, except for Tennessee.
All the pundits are expecting the seeds to hold true for the Final Four. I think they're nuts. There are no undefeated teams this year, I will be very surprised if all four make it to Indy. There are always a few highly ranked teams that get caught flat, underestimating their opponent, just like with the men. I do like Duke's bracket until the regional finals, but there are several good teams in our way, and all it will take is for our stale offense to once again return, and we are done for the year.
I have no fear of T-M, but Iowa State and Marist would be teams to watch out for in the second round. It should be a good tourney to watch. GO DUKE!!

[MCFinARL]

I'm not a seeding expert, so maybe this made sense--but I thought the tournament might have been more interesting if they had chosen to place the #2 seeds differently. Duke goes up against Connecticut, the only #1 seed it played in the regular season (and lost badly to); Xavier goes up against Stanford, one of the two teams it lost to in the regular season (the other was Duke); Texas A&M goes up against Baylor, the champion of its own conference to whom it has lost three times already this season. Only Notre Dame is matched against a team it hasn't faced and already lost to. Why not mix it up a little? In particular, I can't understand putting A&M and Baylor in the same region; Notre Dame and Connecticut in the same region would have been a similarly bad idea.

[CameronBornAndBred]

In particular, I can't understand putting A&M and Baylor in the same region; .

It's all about filling the arenas. Unlike the men, where they know they won't have much trouble filling the regionals, they have to try their best to draw the local fanbase to their teams. That's why the top 2 seeds in each region were pretty predictable.

[MCFinARL]

It's all about filling the arenas. Unlike the men, where they know they won't have much trouble filling the regionals, they have to try their best to draw the local fanbase to their teams. That's why the top 2 seeds in each region were pretty predictable.

Well, of course; that's a good point. There's no point thinking about what matchup might be more appealing to a random fan who will watch on TV if you can't fill the seats in the venues. I guess I wasn't thinking it all the way through. Thanks.