I’m busted.
Half-way through the round of 32, and my bracket has as many holes as the Cross Bronx Expressway.
And that’s a good thing. Not for me and my broken-down bracket but for women’s basketball. It used to be a safe bet to simply pick the higher seeds to move on, now it’s a lot more unpredictable. It means women’s basketball is more competitive. It means mid-majors such as Middle Tennessee and Marist are becoming forces. Or, it means the seedings were all fouled up. I’m pretty sure it’s the former.
I had Stanford reaching the Final Four. After all, they have the post tandem of Brooke Smith and Jayne Appel who’d been unstoppable by the end of the season, and Candice Wiggins could score from anywhere. Though the Cardinal had a couple of key injuries at the point, some veteran ball-handlers were picking up the slack. I figured they’d run the table through the Fresno regional and smack down a surging but youthful UConn with its more experienced players. No. 2 Stanford dismantled Idaho State in the opening round but never got into the groove Monday against No. 10 Florida State and lost, 68-61. Stanford had knocked out FSU in the second round last year.
"We saw on ESPN, from point one they knew Stanford was coming out (of this bracket)," Tanae Davis-Cain said. "But as underdogs, we don't care about TV. We play hard for ourselves. Once we saw the brackets come out, we knew we'd get Stanford. This was payback."
I blame Maples Pavilion. After unlikely Marist, a 13-seed, downed 4-seed Ohio State in the opening round at Maples on Saturday, I thought for sure the hyper-speed fastbreaks and stifling traps of Middle Tennessee would cage the Red Foxes. Not so much. Marist’s own brand of defensive control completely derailed MTSU’s full-court press game plan. MTSU forces almost 27 turnovers a game, but Marist holds onto the ball better than any other team in the country and had 12 turnovers; the Blue Raiders had 14. Marist point guard Alisa Kresge ran plays to perfection, with 9 assists, and shut down scoring threat Chrissy Givens. Marist won, 73-59, snapping MTSU’s 27-game win streak.
The Stanford and Florida State teams were waiting in the wings and watched Marist become only the third No. 13 to advance to the Sweet 16, behind Texas A&M in 1994 and Liberty in 2005. Some members of the Stanford team could be seen shaking their heads after the buzzer sounded and Marist leaped and bounded happily off the court. The prospect of a higher seed winning on their court seemed to throw them, while it only served to empower Florida State, which already had toppled a storied program in No. 7 Old Dominion in the first round.
Florida State (24-9) hasn’t been known for women’s basketball – until now. Ten years ago, it went 0-16 in the ACC. Last night, the team beat a Top 25 team for the first time in six tries. Stanford (29-5) has been a powerhouse for most of the past two decades, last advancing to the Final Four in 1997. But it’s also suffered its share of upsets, being the only top seed to be ousted by a 16-seed when Harvard shocked the Cardinal in 1998, and falling four years ago to Minnesota in the second round. Both of those crushing defeats happened at Maples. Stanford might be better off without the home court “advantage.”
Florida State and Marist are similarly scrappy. Florida State was saddled with foul trouble in the first half but still waged a physical battle, getting in Stanford’s face and staying there. They hit shots when Stanford couldn’t. They stopped Stanford off the dribble. Shante Williams came off the bench to score 16 and lead the Seminoles. Wiggins had 19 for Stanford, but Smith could manage only 12 after scoring a season-high 29 against Idaho State.
Florida State will face No. 3 LSU in Fresno Saturday. The Tigers struggled mightily in a 49-43 win over West Virginia. My bracket had Stanford facing LSU, and I’d picked Stanford to advance because I figured LSU would have an easy time of it in the first rounds, then the reality of their missing coach would hit against Stanford and they’d collapse. It looked like they were missing the fire of Pokey Chatman, who resigned March 7 because of allegation of inappropriate contact with former players, in the West Virginia game. If they don’t get it together, they’re finished. FSU is playing like it has nothing to lose, and LSU looked tight. Might be another upset.
Back in the Dayton regional, Marist will take on the winner of tonight’s Tennessee-Pittsburgh game. So, Tennessee. I can’t wait to see that. This region is packed with powerhouses Tennessee, last year’s champ Maryland, Oklahoma and, previously, Ohio State. Marist is definitely the little fish in the big pond. Well, in this case, they’re little (Red) Foxes, sly and scrappy. Let’s see them run with the big dawgs.
Comments (1)
Women's basketball......who cares???