Anyone who watched Tennessee head coach Bruce Pearl’s reaction to his team’s No. 2 seed Sunday on ESPN could read his lips with no trouble.
For those who didn’t watch, it went something like “holy” followed by a word that rhymes with “fit.”
My guess is Pat Summitt chose a different string of expletives when she saw her Lady Vols revealed as a two-seed in this year’s tournament.
“Pat, year in and year out, is going to play a tough schedule, she is going to have a great RPI and she’s going to win tough games,” LSU coach Pokey Chatman said Monday. “That’s what she did. And I guess the question she will ask is ‘what else do I have to do?'”
The Southeastern Conference Champion Lady Vols have a case, but the North Carolina Lady Tar Heels unanimously won the slap-in-the-face award last night during the selection show.
North Carolina is unquestionably the best team coming into this tournament. They are the ACC tournament champions, they have the least losses, – 1 – they beat No. 4 Duke twice and they avenged their only loss of the season to Maryland in their conference tournament.
And their reward for their tremendous accomplishments are potential opponents such as Tennessee, Big East regular season champion Rutgers and a possible second game against No. 8 seed Vanderbilt.
Oh yeah, that second game will be played on Vanderbilt’s home court. Nice, huh?
“That’s probably the toughest bracket of all,” Augustus admitted. “I wouldn’t say we have a cakewalk but it’s much easier compared to having to deal with Rutgers, Tennessee and Vanderbilt.”
But the Lady Vols’ and Lady Tar Heels’ problems are of no consequence to the Lady Tigers’ road to Boston.
For the sake of argument, look back at women’s basketball tournament history. In the previous 24 tournaments, a team lower than a four seed has only reached the final four six times.
Let’s play the odds and breakdown the top four seeds in LSU’s regional bracket. Note that the Lady Tigers must win their regional bracket to advance to the Final Four.
 
No. 2 OKLAHOMA (29-4, 16-0 BIG 12)
The Sooners captured the Big 12 tournament championship after defeating Baylor 72-61.
There is no doubt that LSU center Sylvia Fowles will match up against Oklahoma’s 6-foot-4-inch center Courtney Paris in one of the most intriguing battles of the tournament.
Paris is first in the nation in rebounding by grabbing close to 15 boards per game. She is also ninth in the country in scoring, sixth in blocked shots and sixth in field-goal percentage.
A team like LSU can expose so many weaknesses and the Sooners’ 158th ranked defense could certainly cost them as well as being ranked 286th in the nation in free-throw percentage.
 
No. 3 STANFORD (23-7, 15-3 PAC 10)
Teams from the West Coast tend to be offensively inclined, and Stanford is no exception.
The Cardinal are fifth in the nation in scoring offense and average 78.8 points per game.
Stanford guard Candice Wiggins fuels the team’s offense pouring in about 21 points per game, which is 10th-best in the nation.
West Coast teams tend to play bad defense too and Stanford fits the mold.
The Cardinal’s defense ranks 129th in the nation, and like Oklahoma, the Cardinal cannot make a free throw to save their life and make just two-thirds of their attempts.
Teams have to play good defense to stop LSU – Stanford doesn’t.
 
No. 4 DEPAUL (25-6, 11-5 BIG EAST)
More bad defense here.
DePaul opponents average 62.7 points per contest while shooting about 40 percent per game.
The Blue Demons do, however, pose a potentially-competitive match up with Fowles.
Khara Smith, a 6-foot-2-inch foward, averages a double-double and has scored in double digits 83 times in four years.
As a team, DePaul dishes out 18.2 assists per game, making them the second-best passing team in the nation.
But the Blue Demons couldn’t pull through against the top-25 this season and went just 1-4 versus ranked opponents.
Unfortunately for DePaul, beating just one ranked team the entire season doesn’t cut it here.
 
THE VERDICT
The Lady Tigers will win the San Antonio regional final and advance to the Final Four for the third-consecutive season.
I just hope it’s not cold during April in Boston.
 
Kyle is a public relations freshman.
Contact him at [email protected]