Monday, March 16, 2009

Ladies and gentlemen, your Auburn Lady Tigers!

OK, guys, I'm here right now, watching the Women's NCAA Tournament selection show. Our Auburn Tigers are battling for a possible No. 1 seed (likely a No. 2), and I'm here to record it for posterity. I'll also try to keep up with the other SEC seedings.

*Vandy's a No. 4 seed -- here's hoping we don't end up in their region since, as we all know, Vandy tends to beat us. After all, they were the only team to beat us twice this year (and we only lost to one other team)! If we get into the Final Four, hopefully they won't be there either. (Whew -- we're not in their region.)

*LSU's a No. 6 seed in the Raleigh region, and I think they're playing in Baton Rouge for their first game. That should be fair to the other team. 

*The commentator's talking about how tough Vandy played us. Once again, here's hoping we don't see them in the tourney. And here's hoping we don't see UConn until the Final Four. They are downright scary -- undefeated, and they have won every single game in double digits. Are y'all hearing what I'm saying? Every game. Double digits. 

*Still waiting to hear Auburn's name called. I'm hoping it's in this region ... Oklahoma City. Oh, no. It's not in this region so far ... if we're not in this region, then that means we've got a chance of being stuck in UConn's region, and Nell Fortner (Auburn's head coach) is going to cut somebody.

*Now they're announcing the bottom of the Oklahoma City region. Hopefully Auburn will be in this one. (UNC is the No. 3 seed here -- I love UNC's basketball program, and would love to see our girls play theirs!) 

*YES! Auburn's in here! We're playing No. 15 seed Lehigh in New Jersey. Ok, that kind of sucks that we're in New Jersey, but the point is that we wouldn't see UConn until at least the Final Four. Granted, we have a whole mess of teams to make it through to even get there, but we have the talent to play with anyone. 

*Oooh, they're commentating on Auburn now! I'm going to rewind my DVR in a minute so I can recap that. OK, here we go: Basically, they're saying that if we make it past our opening-round game, we'll have to play Rutgers on their home floor (also assuming they make it past their first-round game). That's rough for us, because Rutgers has got one of the best coaches in the game and a great home-town atmosphere, but I still believe we can play with anyone. They're also saying DeWanna Bonner would have to play big for us to advance past Rutgers, but that Nell Fortner knows how to use that as motivation for our girls. They also recap that Auburn, despite a lot of talent, has not won an NCAA tournament game since Nell's been there. 

*Now Pat Summitt, who is one of the best basketball coaches of all time -- men's or women's -- is talking about how this was a rough year for Tennessee. They won the national championship the last two years with one of my favorite players, Candace Parker, leading them. This year they were ranked most of the year, made the NCAA tournament, and it's still a down year. This is how dominant Tennessee is. Need any more convincing? Pat Summitt is the only coach in NCAA history to have 1,000 wins. She's been at Tennessee for 40 years. I love this lady. 

*Tennessee is a No. 5 seed in the Berkeley region, which puts the SEC with four teams in the tournament so far (I think). 

*Yay, we got another one! Mississippi State is a No. 11 seed in the Berkeley region, as well. 

*Another reason Tennessee is so dominant: They have the most consecutive bids to the tournament with 28. OMG. 28 straight years. And, they have never missed a Sweet 16 in all that time. Pat Summitt has eight national championships to her credit. And 18 Final Four appearances.

*No. 1 seeds: Oklahoma, Duke, Maryland and (surely) UConn. Yep, there it is: No. 1 in the Trenton region, UConn.

*Wow, Florida's in too, as a No. 8 seed in Trenton! That's six SEC teams so far! Looks like the girls are making up for the boys having such a down year ... and there's seven! Georgia's in as a No. 11 seed! I'm really proud of the SEC women!

*And the entire field has finally been revealed. Just to recap:
-Auburn is a No. 2 seed in the Oklahoma City region. They'll play No. 15 seed Lehigh this Saturday at 11 a.m. on ESPN2. Definitely gotta be there for that. 
-The SEC has seven teams in. That's gotta be the most or tied for the most out of any conference. And I think the lowest seed out of the SEC was a No. 11. That's pretty good. 

*SEC games:
No. 2 Auburn vs. No. 15 Lehigh, Saturday at 11 a.m., ESPN2 -- Oklahoma City region
No. 4 Vandy vs. No. 13 Western Carolina, Saturday at 7 p.m., ESPN2 -- Raleigh region
No. 6 LSU vs. No. 11 Green Bay, Sunday at 6 p.m., ESPN2 -- Raleigh region
No. 5 Tennessee vs. No. 12 Ball State, Sunday at 7:30 p.m., ESPN2 -- Berkeley region
No. 11 Mississippi State vs. No. 5 Texas, Saturday at 11 a.m., ESPN2 (Hopefully we'll get the AU game) -- Berkeley region
No. 8 Florida vs. No. 9 Temple, Sunday at 1:30 p.m., ESPN/ESPN2 -- Trenton region
No. 11 Georgia vs. No. 6 Arizona State, Saturday at noon, ESPN2 -- Trenton region

3 comments:

  1. Yeah, this definitely needed some Meryl or some Delilah.

    "From a distance..."

    ReplyDelete
  2. I know, I'm a nerd about the Auburn sports.

    "Lady in red..."

    ReplyDelete