After breaking their own NCAA record with consecutive win #71 by — ho-hum — beating the #6 team in the country by 15 points*, the Huskies have just seven games left on their road to 78 straight and another national title. Then comes the real drama, maybe: can Geno beat John? Auriemma > Wooden? The Sorcerer of Storrs bests the Wizard of Westwood? 88 straight will be in sight during the first part of next season.
*This actually qualifies as a subpar performance, by the standards of UConn during the streak. The Huskies are 13-0 against Top 10 opponents during the streak, winning those games by an average of 26.2 points.
Please, please let UConn play Nebraska in the championship game instead of the Final Four.
If the national polls are in any way indicative of the selection committee’s thinking, I imagine UConn would end up on the same side of the draw as the fourth-best No. 1 seed (a UConn-Tennessee semifinal?), leaving Nebraska and Stanford (assuming both win out) as the No. 1s in the other half.
The national polls are a notoriously poor proxy for seeding. Look no further than Gonzaga (on the men’s side), which has been in or near the Top 10 for much of the season, yet was never going to be a Top 3 seed (even before its inexplicable WCC regular-season losses and its title-game pummelling by SMC), as such a ranking would imply. Same goes for New Mexico, currently ranked #8 in both polls, but having zero shot at a #2 seed.
ESPN’s women’s bracketologist, the unfortunately named Charlie Creme, isn’t entirely clear about which regions are pitted against which, but it looks like he’s got UConn as the #1 overall seed, Tennessee #2, Stanford #3, and Nebraska #4. That seems a bit harsh to Nebraska, which is, after all, undefeated (I hadn’t realized that – wow), but I sort of hope it’s true… I’d love to see UConn-Tennessee in the final. I suppose UConn-Nebraska (battle of unbeatens) would be OK too, though. Just don’t give us UConn-Stanford, or UConn-ND or UConn-Duke or UConn vs. some other team it’s already beaten by double digits.
I just feel sorry for whichever #2 seed happens to be eighth on the S-curve… and for that matter, whichever #3 seed happens to be ninth. There goes your Final Four shot.
P.S. According to Creme, USC is one of the “last four in” on the women’s side. Yikes. GO WOMEN OF TROY!