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The nation owes thank you cards to Virginia, Syracuse and Southern Cal. While sanity threatened to fully overtake March Madness, that trio brought the only spice to a flavorless palette.
The only true upset owner through the first round of the NCAA women’s tournament is No. 10 seed Virginia and its 82-73 overtime win over No. 7 Georgia. No. 9 Syracuse deserves applause for ousting a superstar by knocking out Audi Crooks and Iowa State, 72-63. And USC survived a bang-bang play at the buzzer by Clemson’s Mia Moore that stands as the most thrilling ender to date, despite it not counting. The No. 9 Trojans advanced, 71-69, in overtime.
Yes, the pickings are so slim we’re celebrating toss-up 8-9 matchups as upsets. And none of them are mid-majors, the most pure Cinderellas of them all. None of the favored No. 11 upset picks — Fairfield (19-point loss to Notre Dame), South Dakota State (18 to Washington) nor Rhode Island (14 to Alabama) — made it to the end.
Chalk could have been deeply shaded into the bracket long before the final buzzers.
Six of the 32 first-round games were decided by single digits, three of which were what we’re dubbing upsets. Of the 29 other games, the winning team advanced by an average margin of 25 points. No. 1 South Carolina took the crown with its 69-point blow-by of Southern, once again getting the best of SEC rival LSU. The No. 2 Tigers defeated No. 15 Jacksonville by 58 on Friday.
It’s nothing new in women’s college basketball that the high seeds grind their first-round opponents into dust. They spun the same old tale a year ago when the No. 1 seeds won by an average of 47 points. That’s a difference of more than 23 layups, or 15 3-pointers. It was much the same when taking into account the No. 2 and 3 seeds.
Their opponents, the 14-16 seeds, entered this tournament a combined 1-360 since the bracket expanded to 64 teams in 1994.
Make it 1-372. No Cinderellas create a scene at this ball. They barely make their appearance.
Throw a dart, and it’ll hit a reason.
The open availability of the transfer portal further elevates the game’s monarchs in a rich-become-richer story. Name, image and likeness is bleeding mid-major rosters dry of top-end talent, while conference realignment wrecked the mid-major field. Premier mid-major programs built on a foundation of continuity are increasingly liable to lose their coaches to the WNBA, where teams began enticing more candidates with million-dollar salaries.
That automatic bids are awarded via a conference tournament — largely a money draw — creates a crapshoot that doesn’t guarantee the best team makes the big dance. Games are played on home courts for the top four seeds. And the women’s basketball selection committee continues to develop and utilize advanced data to seed the field, a success in fairness but one that limits the any-given-Sunday mentality.
Ah, Sunday. Keep the chalk handy.
A few Cinderellas arrived over the years. That No. 16 Harvard upset No. 1 Stanford in 1998 is a celebrity-level Final Jeopardy question. (The regular version: The Crimson’s leading scorer with 35 points was Allison Feaster, mother of UConn’s Sarah Strong.)
That’s where the run ended. Seven total 12 or 13 seeds have made the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament’s history, according to the NCAA. The most recent was Quinnipiac in 2017, which lost to eventual champion South Carolina. The Bobcats are one of the few mid-majors to make it out of the first weekend.
The lowest seed to reach the Elite Eight was No. 11 Gonzaga in 2011. A team seeded eighth or worse hasn’t made the Final Four since the 1990s. And there’s only two of them: No. 9 Arkansas in 1998 and No. 8 Missouri State in 1992.
It’s only been a decade since the most diverse Final Four was played in 2016. No. 7 Washington reached the Final Four, where it played No. 2 Oregon, and No. 4 Syracuse lost to No. 1 UConn in the title game.
It feels inexplicable in this current era that such seeds could play party crashers. A No. 3 seed worming its way to the final weekend, as LSU did in 2023 and NC State in 2024, is celebration enough. The Tigers became the third team in tournament history to win as a No. 3. No team seeded below them has won.
That’s getting ahead of ourselves. There are still Sweet 16 bids to punch, and as the number of teams dwindle, so too will the margins. The first round is merely an initial scene-setter of an eight-episode miniseries that saves the cliffhangers for the stretch run.
Continue reading...
The only true upset owner through the first round of the NCAA women’s tournament is No. 10 seed Virginia and its 82-73 overtime win over No. 7 Georgia. No. 9 Syracuse deserves applause for ousting a superstar by knocking out Audi Crooks and Iowa State, 72-63. And USC survived a bang-bang play at the buzzer by Clemson’s Mia Moore that stands as the most thrilling ender to date, despite it not counting. The No. 9 Trojans advanced, 71-69, in overtime.
Yes, the pickings are so slim we’re celebrating toss-up 8-9 matchups as upsets. And none of them are mid-majors, the most pure Cinderellas of them all. None of the favored No. 11 upset picks — Fairfield (19-point loss to Notre Dame), South Dakota State (18 to Washington) nor Rhode Island (14 to Alabama) — made it to the end.
Chalk could have been deeply shaded into the bracket long before the final buzzers.
Six of the 32 first-round games were decided by single digits, three of which were what we’re dubbing upsets. Of the 29 other games, the winning team advanced by an average margin of 25 points. No. 1 South Carolina took the crown with its 69-point blow-by of Southern, once again getting the best of SEC rival LSU. The No. 2 Tigers defeated No. 15 Jacksonville by 58 on Friday.
It’s nothing new in women’s college basketball that the high seeds grind their first-round opponents into dust. They spun the same old tale a year ago when the No. 1 seeds won by an average of 47 points. That’s a difference of more than 23 layups, or 15 3-pointers. It was much the same when taking into account the No. 2 and 3 seeds.
Their opponents, the 14-16 seeds, entered this tournament a combined 1-360 since the bracket expanded to 64 teams in 1994.
Make it 1-372. No Cinderellas create a scene at this ball. They barely make their appearance.
Throw a dart, and it’ll hit a reason.
The open availability of the transfer portal further elevates the game’s monarchs in a rich-become-richer story. Name, image and likeness is bleeding mid-major rosters dry of top-end talent, while conference realignment wrecked the mid-major field. Premier mid-major programs built on a foundation of continuity are increasingly liable to lose their coaches to the WNBA, where teams began enticing more candidates with million-dollar salaries.
That automatic bids are awarded via a conference tournament — largely a money draw — creates a crapshoot that doesn’t guarantee the best team makes the big dance. Games are played on home courts for the top four seeds. And the women’s basketball selection committee continues to develop and utilize advanced data to seed the field, a success in fairness but one that limits the any-given-Sunday mentality.
Ah, Sunday. Keep the chalk handy.
A few Cinderellas arrived over the years. That No. 16 Harvard upset No. 1 Stanford in 1998 is a celebrity-level Final Jeopardy question. (The regular version: The Crimson’s leading scorer with 35 points was Allison Feaster, mother of UConn’s Sarah Strong.)
That’s where the run ended. Seven total 12 or 13 seeds have made the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament’s history, according to the NCAA. The most recent was Quinnipiac in 2017, which lost to eventual champion South Carolina. The Bobcats are one of the few mid-majors to make it out of the first weekend.
The lowest seed to reach the Elite Eight was No. 11 Gonzaga in 2011. A team seeded eighth or worse hasn’t made the Final Four since the 1990s. And there’s only two of them: No. 9 Arkansas in 1998 and No. 8 Missouri State in 1992.
It’s only been a decade since the most diverse Final Four was played in 2016. No. 7 Washington reached the Final Four, where it played No. 2 Oregon, and No. 4 Syracuse lost to No. 1 UConn in the title game.
It feels inexplicable in this current era that such seeds could play party crashers. A No. 3 seed worming its way to the final weekend, as LSU did in 2023 and NC State in 2024, is celebration enough. The Tigers became the third team in tournament history to win as a No. 3. No team seeded below them has won.
That’s getting ahead of ourselves. There are still Sweet 16 bids to punch, and as the number of teams dwindle, so too will the margins. The first round is merely an initial scene-setter of an eight-episode miniseries that saves the cliffhangers for the stretch run.
Continue reading...
