Holly Warlick. Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
Baylor, Stanford, Connecticut and Notre
Dame earned No. 1 seeds for the women's NCAA basketball tournament for the
second straight year.
All four programs reached the Final Four a year ago, with Baylor defeating
Notre Dame in the title game for its second national championship.
At least two No. 1 seeds have advanced to the Final Four the past eight years.
Baylor (32-1), led by the dominant Brittney Griner, lost only one game this
season and once again ran the table in the Big 12. The Lady Bears are
stationed in the Oklahoma City Region and will be looking to become the first
program other than Connecticut or Tennessee to repeat as champions since USC
did it in 1983-84.
The only team to knock off Baylor this season, Stanford, is in the Spokane
Region. The Pac-12 champion Cardinal (31-2) have reached the Final Four the
past five years, but has not worn the crown since 1992.
Skylar Diggins led Notre Dame (31-1) to its first-ever Big East Tournament
title after an undefeated run in regular season conference play, but the
Fighting Irish have lost in the title game each of the past two years. They
were upended handily by Baylor in last year's finale and their only blemish
this year also came against the Lady Bears back in December.
Notre Dame will play in the Norfolk Region, while its rival, Connecticut,
looms in the Bridgeport Region. The Huskies (29-4) have also reached five
straight Final Fours, but dropped all three games to Notre Dame this season
and another to Baylor.
The No. 2 seeds in the field are California, Kentucky, Duke and Tennessee.
Penn State, North Carolina, Texas A&M, and UCLA comprise the No. 3 seeds,
while Georgia, Maryland, South Carolina and Purdue round out the top four
seeds in each region.
The University of Tennessee Lady Vols will take on No. 15 Oral Roberts at 1:30pm Saturday at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville.
The women's Final Four will be played at New Orleans Arena on April 7 with the
national championship game two days later.
The Sports Network