The women, who have been ranked in the top 7 the entire second half of the season, have finally learned where they slot into things. Here’s the rundown (Central Time; will update as I get more info):
NASHVILLE
March 20/21 @ TIME: 15 High Point
March 22/23 @ TIME: 7 Illinois/10 Colorado
FORT WORTH
March 27/28 @ TIME
March 29/30 @ TIME (probably playing UConn here)
PHOENIX
April 3 @ TIME: Final Four
April 5 @ 2:30PM: Championship
Mikayla Blakes enters the tournament the best scorer in the country, an entire
point-and-a-half clear of second-place Audi Crooks, and SEC Player of the Year and likely National Player of the Year Runner-Up behind Sarah Strong at (in my opinion overrated) UConn. Aubrey Galvan enters as the SEC Freshman of the Year and likely National Freshman of the Year Runner-Up behind Jazzy Davidson of USC. The Commodores will be led by SEC Coach of the Year, and likely National Coach of the Year, Shea Ralph. The roster lacks a little bit of defense, and we sometimes start games slow, but the core of the team is maybe the strongest in the country. We are largely considered no. 6 in likelihood to cut down the nets, and anything less than our first Final Four since 1993, would really be a disappointment this season.
There are 4 teams that sit above the rest in terms of likelihood to win a title this year, and we’ve beaten one of them (SEC Champion Texas) as well as LSU, who is currently considered the next most likely team to win it all. After us, it’s a decent drop before you get to the field. As a 2-seed, we won’t have to face a 1-seed until, at the earliest, the Elite Eight.
Looking at the Nashville site, I am not really worried at all about TEAM in the First Round. Turning towards the Second Round, Illinois has been struggling lately. I’ll need to look into Colorado a little more. It gets difficult to predict anything past that, given the sheer number of possible outcomes. I guess for now we just focus on getting out of Nashville.
