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On Wounded Knee

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By KATHERINE SMITH | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 21, 2008

PROJECTED REGIONAL SEEDS

Staff writer Katherine Smith takes an early look at how the NCAA Tournament field might develop and which teams could wind up in Tampa:

Greensboro

1. UConn (17-0)

2. LSU (14-3)

3. Duke (14-4)

4. Ohio State (15-3)

Injury-plagued UConn and LSU might be limping into the tournament, but both teams possess enough talent to compensate for losses.

New Orleans

1. Tennessee (16-1)

2. Baylor (16-1)

3. Stanford (16-3)

4. Old Dominion (14-3)

2005 national champion Baylor is emerging as the team to keep an eye on.

Spokane

1. North Carolina (17-1)

2. Rutgers (15-2)

3. Wyoming (16-1)

4. George Wash. (14-4)

Rutgers continues to fight through injuries and wear down its opponents. The Scarlet Knights' feistiness will serve them well come tournament time.

Oklahoma City

1. Maryland (22-1)

2. California (17-2)

3. Oklahoma (11-4)

4. Georgia (15-3)

No. 4 Maryland did more than establish its ACC dominance with a decisive win over No. 10 Duke. The Terps firmly set their sights on Tampa.

FINAL FOUR MOMENT

Tampa plays host to the Women's Final Four on April 6 and 8. General tickets are sold out for the games at the St. Pete Times Forum, but there will be plenty of other activities surrounding the event for basketball fans to enjoy.

This week's Final Four memory:

Baylor 84, Michigan State 62

April 5, 2005

Indianapolis, RCA Dome

Sophia Young's 26 points helped the Lady Bears win the school's first NCAA title by a women's team. The margin of victory was the second-largest in a championship game, falling one point short of the record set in 1987 when Tennessee beat Louisiana Tech 67-44.

GOT TICKETS?

The 2008 Women's Final Four in Tampa has been sold out since last summer, marking the tournament's 16th consecutive sellout. But that doesn't mean access to the game action will be denied.

There are a few Tampa Bay Local Organizing Contributor packages remaining that provide seats to the games. Interested fans can contact Abby Boustead at aboustead@visittampabay.com or (813) 218-3829.

THEY SAID IT

BY THE NUMBERS

9

Number of teams the Big East and Big 12 are currently projected to send to the NCAA Tournament. It would be the most any league has sent. The Big East sent eight in 2004 and the SEC sent eight in 2002.

56

Florida State's current RPI ranking, the system the selection committee uses in helping choose the 64 teams for the tournament. Florida is ranked 64.

85

South Florida's RPI ranking.

104

Points Notre Dame scored in its 18-point victory over Georgetown on Saturday. It's the first time in school history a Notre Dame team scored more than 100 points on the road.

SLAM DUNK

First he painted his body. Now Bruce Pearl is taking to the airwaves to show his support for the Lady Vols.

Pearl, Tennessee's men's basketball coach, is scheduled to serve as the color commentator for local broadcasts of the Lady Vols' game against Arkansas on Thursday night.

In his first stint as a broadcaster, Pearl is set to join Tennessee play-by-play announcer Bob Kesling in calling the game on Knoxville's WVLT and Nashville's WUXP.

Pearl showed his support for the Lady Vols last year when he joined the student section in spelling out "VOLS" on his chest. Tennessee women's coach Pat Head Summitt returned the favor at a men's game by donning a cheerleading outfit and singing "Rocky Top."

AIR BALL

No. 13 George Washington fell to Temple on Saturday when the Owls' Shanea Cotton scored off her own miss with 23 seconds remaining. LaKeisha Eaddy stole an inbounds pass to secure the 68-66 win. "To beat GW, it's bragging rights," Temple coach Dawn Staley said.

GAME OF THE WEEK

North Carolina at Connecticut

ESPN2, tonight at 7

Both teams are projected to be No. 1 seeds and can pretty much book their trips to Tampa. UConn (17-0) continues to storm through the field, but the loss of starting guard Mel Thomas to a knee injury will be noticeable against a very physical Tar Heels squad.

UConn is getting North Carolina (17-1) at a time when its top player, Erlana Larkins, is hurting. Larkins played with a broken bone in her left hand to help the Tar Heels hold off a late rally by North Carolina State and scored 22 points in a 79-70 victory on Jan. 13.

As Connecticut continues to steamroll through its schedule, it looks as though nothing can bring the Huskies down.

Well, almost nothing.

UConn suffered a significant loss last week when starting guard Mel Thomas suffered a torn ACL and lateral meniscus in the Huskies' victory against Syracuse. It was the second time in less than a month the Huskies lost a starter. Starting forward Kalana Greene tore the ACL in her right knee during a 97-39 win over South Carolina on Dec. 17.

Those injuries brought the Huskies, the only undefeated team in women's basketball, to the level of several other programs dealing with knee injuries.

Rutgers is down to eight healthy players following a rash on injuries, including the loss of freshman Khadijah Rushdan. On a drive to the basket with 5:07 left to play against Temple on Jan. 2, Rushdan sustained a torn ACL. The only newcomer to last year's championship runner-up team, Rushdan is the all-time leading prep scorer in Delaware.

Cal's Devanei Hampton recently returned following arthroscopic surgery, the third surgery on her right knee. The reigning Pac-10 Player of the Year scored a career-high 28 points in a 64-51 victory over Arizona State on Thursday.

LSU got a scare early in the season when All-American Sylvia Fowles suffered a partial tear in the lateral meniscus of her right knee. Fowles ended up missing just two games, but the Tigers eased her back into the lineup.

She came off the bench in her first game back on Jan. 3 and played 22 minutes. Fowles returned to the starting lineup on Jan. 10 and posted 18 points, 10 rebounds, three blocked shots and two steals in LSU's 76-54 victory over Arkansas.

But not everyone will be returning this season. More and more teams are losing players to injuries and having to adjust their lineups.

The Huskies are just the latest to join the ranks.

COURTSIDE

NCAA officials were in Tampa last week meeting with local Final Four organizers to fine-tune plans and details before the games come to town on April 6 and 8. Sue Donohoe, NCAA vice president for Division I women's basketball, talked to The Tampa Tribune about the upcoming tournament and the behind-the-scenes work going on.

There's less than three months until the tournament arrives in Tampa. Is this crunch time?

On Jan. 15, we're 82 days away from tip-off. As exciting as that is, it's a little bit nerve-racking for all of us. The local organizing committee's in great shape, but we've got a lot of work still yet to do. We have no doubt come the end of March, early April, we're going to be ready to go.

What are the biggest things you are working on now, some of the things you need to get wrapped up within the next month?

A lot of it is some new ideas that have generated and bubbled up over the last month and a half. We're talking about some different hospitality events that we've never done before and how do we pull all those together. Also, we've added some events this year that we've not done in the past, like the 4Kay Run, honoring Coach Kay Yow from North Carolina State.

Do you feel the need to add new events when you're playing in a venue for the first time, or in fact, for the first time in the state of Florida?

Every year when we go into a Final Four city, that city wants to build on the legacy of the Women's Final Four. Certainly Cleveland did some things with their "Women Rock" last year and this year's the first time we've hosted a run. I think each city wants to take what's been done and what's been successful and put their mark on it and they should want to do that. Each Final Four takes on a personality of its own and certainly Tampa has.

As the season progresses, it appears as if any number of teams could make their way to Tampa.

You start looking at teams like Maryland and Duke. Maryland's playing really good right now and Duke's still trying to find out who they are. When they do, they're going to be very good. There's no denying Tennessee and UConn are great programs right now, but gosh, you've got LSU, you've got Rutgers, you've got Stanford, you've got Oklahoma, you've got Cal. I think right now, the field's wide open and that's what's great about women's basketball. I think we're going to start seeing things becoming more clear over the next couple of weeks with conference play. We're going to see some things kind of define themselves. I don't know which four teams, but I know four of them are going to get here.

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