Knoxville -- Duke, Tennessee, Connecticut and North Carolina were selected Monday as the No. 1 seeds for the women's NCAA tournament.
The Blue Devils, who went 29-0 in the regular season and then lost to N.C. State in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament semifinals, will open up against No. 16 Holy Cross on Sunday in Raleigh. With a regional in Greensboro, Duke would stay in North Carolina until the Final Four in Cleveland.
The 64-team tournament begins Saturday.
"We're really excited. We're playing all year long, hoping to get a chance to stay in Raleigh, and stay in Greensboro which is about an hour and 15 minutes down the road," Duke coach Gail Goestenkors said.
Duke, ranked atop the AP Poll for the final nine weeks, hopes for better results than the last time the Blue Devils finished No. 1 - the 2003-04 final poll. They lost to Minnesota in the regional finals that season.
Others in the Greensboro regional are No. 8 Temple vs. No. 9 Nebraska, No. 4 Rutgers vs. No. 12 East Carolina, No. 5 Michigan State vs. No. 12 Delaware, No. 6 Louisville vs. No. 11 Brigham Young, No. 3 Arizona State vs. No. 14 UC Riverside, No. 7 Bowling Green vs. No. 10 Oklahoma State, and No. 2 Vanderbilt vs. No. 15 Delaware State.
In the West, LSU, which saw Pokey Chatman abruptly resign last Wednesday, is seeded No. 3 in the Fresno region.
Former coach Chatman was not allowed to be alone with her players after an assistant reported alleged improper conduct to the university in February, a school official with direct knowledge of the matter told The Associated Press on Monday.
The university reacted promptly and properly to assistant coach Carla Berry's allegations, said the official, who asked to remain anonymous because it was a personnel matter.
The Tigers will play UNC Asheville on Friday night in Austin, Texas with acting head coach Bob Starkey at the helm.
"The kids have done a wonderful job," Starkey said. "They are a very resilient bunch. They have been through difficult times with Sue Gunter's death and Hurricane Katrina."
The defending champion Maryland Terrapins will face Ivy League champion Harvard on Sunday afternoon in Hartford.
Maryland, which returned all five starters from last season's team, was 0-5 against Duke and North Carolina this season. The Terps are looking to become the first repeat champions since Connecticut won three straight from 2002-04.
"The only team that's going into the tournament knowing they can win it is Maryland, cause they've won it, and they've got a lot of the players back from the team that won it," Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma said. "Everybody else is going in with the same mind-set, 'I think we can win it,' and that's how we're going into it."
West No. 1 seed Connecticut (29-3) will play No. 16 UMBC on Sunday in Hartford.
If they advance past the first two rounds, the Huskies then must travel to Fresno, Calif. for the regionals. During its run of five national championships since 1995, Connecticut hasn't been farther West than Kansas City.
The Huskies eventually could face No. 2 Stanford, which opens up at home against No. 15 Idaho State.
The sentimental choice in Fresno might be North Carolina State and coach Kay Yow. The Wolfpack, who have won 11 of the 13 games since Yow returned after breast cancer treatments, are the No. 4 seed in Fresno. They will play Robert Morris on Sunday in the first round in the Raleigh subregional.
Also in the West bracket, it will be: No. 5 Baylor vs. No. 12 Chattanooga, No. 6 Xavier vs. No. 11 West Virginia, and No. 7 Old Dominion vs. No. 10 Florida State.
North Carolina, which won the ACC conference tournament, earned a No. 1 seed for the third straight season and will open Sunday against Prairie View. The Tar Heels are the top seed in the Dallas region. Other games in the region include No. 8 California vs. No. 9 Notre Dame, No. 5 George Washington vs. No. 12 Boise State, No. 4 Texas A&M vs. No. 13 Texas-Arlington, No. 6 Iowa State vs. No. 11 Washington, No. 3 Georgia vs. No. 14 Belmont, No. 7 Georgia Tech vs. No. 10 DePaul, and No. 2 Purdue vs. No. 15 Oral Roberts.
The Boilermakers won the Big Ten tournament championship.
The Big East placed the most teams in the championship bracket with eight, followed by the Atlantic Coast and Big 12 with six each.
Six-time champion Tennessee is now the only team that has competed in every NCAA tournament after Louisiana Tech didn't make the field this year. The Lady Vols, who are a No. 1 seed for the 17th time in 20 years, will open up Sunday against No. 16 Drake in Pittsburgh. The No. 8 Panthers will host No. 9 James Madison in the other game in that subregional.
Other games in the Dayton regional include: No. 5 Middle Tennessee, which has won 26 straight games, vs. No. 12 Gonzaga; No. 4 Ohio State vs. No. 13 Marist; No. 6 Marquette vs. No. 11 Louisiana-Lafayette; No. 3 Oklahoma vs. No. 14 Southeast Missouri State; No. 7 Mississippi vs. No. 10 TCU.
Holy Cross and Drake became the fifth and sixth teams with losing records to make the tournament. The Crusaders won the Patriot League, and the Bulldogs were victorious in the Missouri Valley Conference.
The women's Final Four is April 1-3 in Cleveland.
TENNESSEE HEAD COACH PAT SUMMITT
(on the tough bracket): “I’d be surprised if we didn’t get a tough bracket. Last year we obviously gave them some options. We didn’t run the table in the SEC by any means. I think this year’s different. I thought Oklahoma was a No. 2 seed, I think Maryland’s a No. 2 seed, I think Ohio State’s a No. 3 seed. That’s my opinion, and it really doesn’t matter. I can’t imagine the other teams being very thrilled about it either. If I’m Ohio State, I’m like, a four-seed? Oklahoma, a three-seed? Both of those surprise me.”
(on using the LSU loss as motivation): “Actually if we hadn’t lost and managed to play as poorly as we played and win that game, I would be very worried. We might have a false impression of who we were at that time and who we needed to me. I thought that was one of the best things that happened to us. I hate losing, I don’t care if we’re playing pool. I don’t even know how to play pool, but I hate losing. I guess that’s why I don’t play pool. I just think that was one of the best thing that happened to us.”
(on the lack of reaction from the players): “I think they’re fine. I think they know we’re Tennessee, and things like this happen. We’ve gone through some tough brackets in the past. And if you look what they did, and I don’t think the “S-curve” is much of a factor in the placement of the teams geographically so they’d have better fan support. That has a lot to do with it, getting people there, keeping people in their region so you don’t spend as much money. And you get better fan support. I think if you look at the men’s bracket, I think they did a lot of the same things. Looking at it last night, I thought our bracket was going to be a lot like their bracket, keeping teams in their region as much as possible.”
Forward Dominique Redding
“It’s a challenging draw, but nothing’s easy when you get to the NCAA (Tournament). You just have to take it one day at the time.”
(On what advice she would share with the four players that have never appeared in the NCAA Tournament):
“Well, let’s just say we hope that the fourth time’s the charm. We’re trying to bring them along one game at the time. (I’d tell them to) keep their focus small. Win six games, but take it one game at a time.”
(On what it would take for the Lady Vols to make the Final Four):
“It’s going to take a lot of hustle. You’re going to have to do all the little things that don’t really come up on the stat sheet. We just have to make sure we play defense and rebound, and all the other things will fall into place.”
Forward Sidney Spencer:
(On the toughness seen in Tennessee’s bracket):
“I think that’s why we play a very tough schedule in the regular season is to prepare for this, so whenever we get our bracket, which as they said on TV seems to be one of the toughest, with the top four seeds who they are, we’ll definitely be prepared for that.”
“I know in postseason every team is fighting for a chance to advance. That’s the difference. Every team will do what it takes to win. We just need to be prepared for that, to be prepared for everyone’s best shot at us when we play night in and night out.”
(On possibly playing in her third Final Four):
“It would be incredible. It’s something that can’t be taken for granted because the parity in women’s basketball right now.”
Guard Elizabeth Curry:
“I’m excited about being a No. 1 seed, getting to go to Dayton, which is close to home. Our bracket has a lot of quality opponents, but it’s something we’re excited for. Now it’s just time to go play and focus on one game at a time and who our opponent is and what we’re going to do and rely on Tennessee basketball to get us through the tournament.”
(On the difference playing this year):
“It will continue on as the regular season was, just a whole different atmosphere. I just get to experience it from a different angle. I’m really excited. You get to be a little bit more emotional on this side of it, where you have to get your game face on, operations side as a manager, and getting all that together. Now you get to experience emotions and the team atmosphere, which is something special.”
On playing Drake in the first round:
“It’s a little special. Drake’s in Des Moines, which is about a half-hour from home. I grew up watching them. They were the closest university to go watch play instead of Iowa State and Iowa. That’s neat.”
FORWARD CANDACE PARKER
“We didn’t ask for the toughest road, but that’s what is in front of us and we will just have to face it. We played the toughest regular season in the country, so I don’t think it affects us as much as it may have other teams.
(On how the team’s tough schedule has prepared it for the NCAA Tournament):
“We played a variety of different teams and our coaches prepared us all season to play different styles.”
(On how this year’s team compares to last year’s):
“This is a different team from last year. I feel like we have all of the right parts and we are playing some of our best basketball right now. If we play the way I know we can play, we will be just fine.”
(On the loss to LSU in the SEC Tournament):
“We put it behind us and we are ready to get the postseason going.”
(On her play in the SEC Tournament and the team’s preparation for the NCAA Tournament):
“I don’t feel like I brought enough energy. We’ve gotten back to practice and have really focused on the things we need to improve on. We have increased our confidence and feel really good about entering the postseason.
GUARD ALEXIS HORNBUCKLE
(on getting a No. 1 seed): “We’re honored to get a No. 1 seed based on our season. I think that we fought hard this season to get to that No. 1, considering that last year we felt like we fell short getting that No. 2 seed, so we worked extra hard this year.”
(on anxiety during the selection show): “I wasn’t really paranoid, just anxious to see what was going to happen. More like Christmas Eve instead of Halloween.”
(on the difficulty of the Dayton regional): “It is a tough bracket, but that’s the NCAA Tournament. Anything can happen, no matter where you are, no matter if you think you have a cakewalk. We just have to prepare every day for every game.”
(on being motivated by the LSU loss): “I think we’re hungry. We’re ready. We’re ready to get on the court again, we’re ready to play and try to just give it our all. We want to send a statement to everybody that we lost, but that’s not going to affect us. It’s a whole new season. We might be on the verge of starving instead of hungry. We want it bad. I think that we’re in a great position and we’re going to have a fight every game. The Final Four is not an easy road for us. So if we get there, or when we get there, it’s going to be for a reason.”
(on different focus for the NCAA Tournament): “We need to put together a 40-minute game every night. We can’t have any possessions off; little to none is what you want every game. We’ve had mental breakdowns throughout the season, we’ve had defensive breakdowns, we’ve had offensive weaknesses where we might not have been scoring, but we also weren’t rebounding. You have to put all the intangibles together when it comes to the postseason.”
(on Tennessee having not won an NCAA title since 1998): “We talk about it, it’s motivation. Obviously you come to a school like Tennessee to win a national championship. It’s very frustrating as a player to not yet accomplish that. But that road is not over yet. It’s motivation every day.”
CENTER NICKY ANOSIKE
(on getting a No. 1 seed): “We’re definitely excited to get a No. 1 seed. Obviously, last year we were expecting one and we didn’t get it. But I think we still have the toughest bracket, just like last year, even though we did get the No. 1 seed.”
(on the tough task of not looking ahead): “It’s definitely impossible to just focus on the first game, especially right now after we just watched the selection show. But we have to come prepared no matter who we’re playing.”
(on practice the last few days): “Practice has definitely been rough, and Coach has been trying to get us prepared. She knew what we had in store and she’s been trying to get us ready for it.”
(on extra motivation after missing the Final Four last year): “We definitely have motivation coming in from last year. I think we have a lot more maturity than last year’s team. I think we learned a lot from last year’s experience.”
GUARD SHANNON BOBBITT
“I am looking forward to playing in some great games. Everybody is saying that we have the toughest bracket, but I am looking forward to playing in the NCAA tournament for the first time. We are just going to take what they give us and make sure we come to play.”
FORWARD ALEX FULLER
“Our bracket is better than last year, but we know that we have a tough road to walk. We feel like, if we pull together, we can make it to the Final Four.
(On Maryland):
“They are basically the same team that we played last year, just with another year of experience. They are a tough team, but we have been preparing hard and will be ready to play.”
GUARD CAIT McMAHAN
“Obviously, we got the hardest bracket, but we expected that. I’m very excited to play in the first round of my first NCAA tournament. This is what you dream of as a little kid. I am very anxious.
(On potential matchups with Maryland, Oklahoma and Ohio State):
“We ready for anybody. Show us our opponent.”
FORWARD ALBERTA AUGUSTE
(on playing in her first NCAA Tournament): “Pretty much like the SEC Tournament. That was a big step for us, and it was a big step for me, trying to adapt to that and the physical play. It’s postseason, so I pretty much know what to expect. The veterans help us to practice and help us to prepare for it, letting us know how important it is.”
(on gaining motivation from the loss in the SEC Tournament): “It definitely gives us extra motivation. We know we should have won the tournament, but we fell short. Now it’s just a big opportunity for us to take these six games and go all the way.”
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