The UConn women's basketball team poses with their trophy after winning the Big East regular season championship.

UConn Women Earn Top Seed

Women's Basketball

By: Tim Ehrens

Posted: 3/18/08

After an almost-perfect season that saw a sweep of the Big East championships, UConn was rewarded with a bid to the NCAA Tournament Monday as its No. 1 overall seed.
The Huskies (32-1) were selected as the No. 1 seed - the 11th time they have garnered such a distinction - in the Greensboro Region of the 2008 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament. They will play 16th-seeded Cornell, Sunday (7 p.m., ESPN2) in Bridgeport at the Arena at Harbor Yard. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2. The winner of that game will play the winner of the game between No. 8 seed Texas and No. 9 seed Minnesota - a game taking place approximately 30 minutes after the UConn-Cornell tilt.
While the distinction of UConn as the No. 1 overall seed was no surprise, when the rest of the bracket was announced there was a wealth of bewildered looks to go around.
At the bottom of the bracket lies a familiar foe - 2nd-seeded Rutgers - a team that handed UConn its only loss on Feb. 5 and whom UConn routed in its final game to win the Big East regular season championship. However, in the top half lies teams like No. 5 seed Old Dominion and No. 4 seed Virginia, teams the Huskies have beaten this season by 43 and 30 points, respectively.
"I think probably everybody was surprised, with so many teams to choose from it was kind of ironic," said head coach Geno Auriemma on the unusual one and two-seed pairing. "I guess Rutgers is the No. 8 seed in the country and I find that hard to believe but I guess they are. If I was them I would be questioning what is going on."

UConn players Tina Charles, Ketia Swanier and Charde Houston were mostly indifferent to the presence of Rutgers in their bracket but when the Scarlet Knights were announced as the No. 2 seed loud cheers could be heard from the players in the locker room.

"It was probably mixed emotions," said Renee Montgomery. "We had no idea who the two seeds were going to be. Period. You're really anxious trying to find out who you're going to play and now that we know, it's a better feeling."

A potential rubber match with Rutgers in the Elite Eight is far down the road for this team, and they know it as they prepare for Ivy League champion Cornell on Sunday.

Despite losing their last two games of the regular season, the Big Red won a share of the Ivy League title - along with Dartmouth and Harvard - when it defeated Princeton on March 8. A coin flip determined that the Big Red would play the winner of a Dartmouth-Harvard game. They won the automatic bid eight days later when they beat Dartmouth, 64-47, in a one-game playoff to grab their first-ever NCAA Tournament bid.

Needless to say, the two teams are strangers to each other as they have never played one another on the court. UConn does have some experience against the Ivy League in its history, going 18-9 against teams in that conference.

"I don't know much about them so I'm sure the coaching staff is going to get us prepared for the game," Montgomery said. "They always do so. By the time it's time to play them, I'll know a lot."

Cornell is led by Ivy League Player of the Year Jeomi Maduka - the first-ever Big Red player to earn the honor - who averages 14.3 points per game. While Maduka got most of the accolades - being the only unanimous selection on her third All-Ivy first-team - the Big Red also boast two All-Ivy Honorable Mentions in Lauren Benson and Moina Snyder.

"At this time of year you don't know anything about anybody because you never get a chance to see some of the teams you're going to be playing in some of the early rounds," Auriemma said. "You just go out and play. It's the same thing every year, just go play."

For many players, including seniors like Swanier, playing in Bridgeport again for the first and second rounds is a blessing since they will be playing in front of their home-state fans.

"I'm excited because we have great fans and anywhere we play they are there," Swanier said. "To actually play in Connecticut that makes it a big game, and for the seniors it is the last time we will get to play in Connecticut."

Montgomery alluded to the UConn fans' persistence to travel well for NCAA Tournament games and added that the close proximity of the first and second round games is a bonus.

"It's always nice [to play in Bridgeport]," Montgomery said. "We're so lucky. All of our fans come out to no matter where we are so when they don't have to travel it's good for them. Our fans made it to California when we played there so we have fans everywhere."

UConn is 3-1 in NCAA Tournament games at the Arena at Harbor Yard since 2004. The last time the Huskies played in a Tournament game there was a 63-61 overtime loss to Duke in the Elite Eight, a game in which Houston missed a last-second jumpshot that would have won the game.

Regardless, Houston and the rest of the Huskies are chomping at the bit to get this year's Tournament started Sunday.

"[I'm] extremely excited," Houston said. "Once again, it's not about anyone else. It's about us. We see what is set forth before us, but it's just about us playing our game from this point on."

This is UConn's 20th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. They are 43-6 playing as the No. 1 seed and have won national championships in four of those seasons. They are 15-2 in the first round under Auriemma and have made the Sweet 16 every year since 1994.

Contact Tim Ehrens at Timothy.Ehrens@Gmail.com.