2018 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament

[1972Shocker]

Watched UConn against 10th seeded Buffalo last night. Not very impressed with UConn especially in the 2nd half. Buffalo out-played and definitely out-hustled UConn in the 2nd half.

A good chance we won't be seeing UConn in the final four this year and if they do manage to make it I can't see them winning a Natty this year. But that's why they play the games.

[1972Shocker]

On the other hand I was watching 1 seed Baylor tonight against 8 seed Cal and Baylor looks like the real deal. Helps to have a big, strong 6-7 post with skills. Baylor only lead 19-16 after the 1st quarter but now leads 91-46 with 6:40 remaining in the game.

[1972Shocker]

In what might be a good sign for women's basketball 2 non P-5 schools have advanced to the Sweet 16. #6 South Dakota State beat #3 Syracuse on the Orange home court 75-64 and #11 seed Missouri State, after knocking off #6 DePaul 89-78 on Saturday, took care of #3 Iowa State, who finished 2nd in the Big 12, on the Cyclones home court 69-60 despite a 31 point, 10 rebound performance by Iowa State's best players.

This is the same Missouri State team that lost their season opener to the Lady Shocks 63-60 in Koch Arena and looked pretty bad in doing so. They obviously have improved a lot since then and they finished second in the Valley to Drake with a 16-2 record and then beat Drake soundly to win the Valley Tournament and the Valley auto-bid.

[1972Shocker]

11 seed Missouri State gave 2 seed Stanford a scare in the Sweet 16 before falling 55-46. Stanford lead 49-36 with 5:24 left in the game before Missouri State went on an 8-0 run to pull to within 5 at 49-44 with 2:09 remaining. However, that was the last gasp for the Lady Bears as Stanford scored the final 6 points of the game from the free throw line.

A pretty game is was not. The two teams combined to shoot 5-28 from the field in the 4th quarter and both teams shot about 25% from the field for the game combining to make just 33 out of 131 field goal attempts. They were a combined 5-42 on 3-point attempts. This in a Sweet 16 game.

Missouri State should be pretty good again next year as the only graduate 1 senior.

In any case, the Elite 8 is set with all four games being 1 seeds vs 2 seeds.

Sunday: 2 UConn vs 1 Louisville (in Albany believe it or not) and 2 Oregon vs 1 Mississippi State (in Portland believe it or not).

Monady: 2 Iowa vs 1 Baylor (in Greensboro) and 2 Stanford vs 1 Notre Dame (in Chicago)

Despite UConn and Oregon getting placed in very favorable regions I think the #1 seeds are likely to prevail but we'll see. After watching Stanford some in their last two games I don't think they have a snowballs chance in heck of beating Notre Dame in Chicago. UConn hasn't looked very good either. Not sure Katie Lou Samuelson is 100%. Napheesa Coller is a stud but beyond that UConn doesn't seem to have much.

[UCONN_Husky]

UCONN doesn't have much at all beyond Collier...

[1972Shocker]

They have much better players than the average team does but not sure they are playing at the level they need to advance much further.

What say you about Katie Lou. Is she fully recovered from her injury. Doesn't seem like she is watching her.

[shoxlax]

Just a bench full of HS All Americans

[1972Shocker]

Katie Lou is apparently just fine and dandy as she was back to her outstanding self today with 29 points to lead UConn back to the Final Four with a 80-73 win over 1 seed Louisville. So glad to see her get back on track to close out her career. This helps UConn immensely as it takes some pressure and focus off of Napheesa Coller. 12 consecutive Final Fours and 20 overall. Am amazing run.

With Oregon taking out 1 seed Mississippi State 88-84 that also probably improves UConn's changes to make the Championship game.

I clearly was wrong about the 1 seeds making it through to the Final Four.

[shockerfanmas]

I'm beyond sick of Geno and the dominance of the UConn women's basketball team. That said I'm happy for Katie Lou. I've had the pleasure of meeting her and she's an awesome, down to earth young lady.

I was still pulling for Louisville, but if UConn wins it all, I'll be ok with that, because of Katie Lou.

The way the bracket sets up, I believe UConn will play either Notre Dame or Stanford in the Final Four, neither of which will be easy.

Oregon would play the Baylor-Iowa winner. I really feel like it is wide open at this point, although Baylor seems to be the pick for most people

[flyingMoose]

With Oregon taking out 1 seed Mississippi State 88-84 that also probably improves UConn's changes to make the Championship game.

Actually, UConn will play the winner of tomorrow's Stanford v Notre Dame.

[1972Shocker]

Okay, I looked at a bracket on ESPN but it was kind of confusing,

I would think Notre Dame will be a tougher draw but UConn handled them pretty easily in South Bend earlier this year. So maybe that's a good matchup for them.

[flyingMoose]

On Monday, Baylor demolished Iowa, and Notre Dame came alive in the second half to beat Stanford.

Baylor plays Oregon in the early game on Friday at 6pm CT on ESPN2. The Bears lost to Stanford on the road earlier in the season, a loss that woke up Baylor and they have been on a tear since.

Notre Dame and UConn in the second game are a rematch from the regular season when the Huskies trounced the Irish in South Bend.

[1972Shocker]

Baylor looked pretty darn good the one game I watched them in the Tournament.

If Katie Lou is truly back to 100% then UConn has a good shot.

[1972Shocker]

Women's Final Four preview: Why each team could win in Tampa

[1972Shocker]

2 good games in the semis:

Baylor 72 - Oregon 67

Notre Dame 81 - UConn 76

UConn led 64-55 with about 8 minutes to play but the Irish finished off the game on a 26-12 run to pull of the win.

Neither Notre Dame nor UConn lit it up from the perimeter especially in the 1st half when Notre Dame was 1-11 and UConn was 2-14. Both did improve in that regard in the 2nd half with Notre Dame hitting 6 of 9 and UConn hitting 6 of 14. But the biggest stat discrepancy I could see was that Notre Dame won the battle of the boards by a whopping 54-37 and outscored UConn 22-9 on second chance points. Everything else was pretty much dead even Actually UConn did quite well in almost overcoming the rebounding disadvantage.

UConn only played 6 players with their starters playing 185 minutes and Notre Dame only played 8 players with their starters playing 186 minutes.

Baylor and Oregon had similar profiles in terms of playing time. In fact Baylor starters played 190 minutes in their win over Oregon.

I guess that's just how it's done at the top levels of women's basketball. The Shockers top 5 players averaged 125 minutes per game. Of course, we always seemed to have 1 of 2 players in early foul trouble. Perhaps that's only doable with elite players. Alex Harden always played a lot of minutes. I suppose she was the closest thing to elite the Shocks can claim.

[ShockTalk]

Due to the 8 vs 6 players, one would have to wonder whether ND's best players had more gas in the tank late than UConn.

[1972Shocker]

Considering ND starters played 186 minutes to 185 for UConn I doubt that was a factor.

[ShockTalk]

Sorry, misread.

[choida]

Baylor won