By Mel Greenberg

As a public service, the Guru provides the following information for the biggest invasion of Trenton since a guy named Washiington several centuries ago delivered a surprise or two along the banks of the Delaware.

Saturday's practices for the Regional Semifinals and Final are free at the Sovereign Bank Arena, located quite near the Amtrak Train Station (hint- take a cab); and also near some neat Italian restaurants.

Tickets are still available, according to a release from the local organizing commitee, sent on Thursday. One can purchase either at the Sovereign Bank Arena or by calling 800-298-4200.

There will also be a fan fest with familiy activities and music on one of the arena parking lots.

Doors will open at 11 a.m.. Each session is one hour.

California: 12 p.m. (noon)

Connecticut 1:05 p.m.

Arizona State 2:10 p.m.

Texas A&M 3:15 p.m.

Free trolleys will run between 12 p.m. and 8 p.m. from Gate A of the arena to various historical sites, other attractions and restaurants.

Texas A&M has some familiarity with the locale having been bounced out in 2006 in round two by Rutgers.

California coach Joanne Boyle spent part of her youth in Philadelphia, 30 miles to the south, but has no memories of Trenton.

Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma grew up in Norristown but any stories he has about Trenton are probably unprintable.

The Guru hasn't yet caught up with Arizona State coach Charli Turner Thorne but we're on the case.

Other notables:Virginia coach Debbie Ryan and former WNBA president Val Ackerman grew up near Trenton, while Northwestern coach Joe McKeown went to school at was then called Mercer County Community College and was known to hitch rides back to Northeast Philadelphia from former Immaculata star Theresa Grentz.

Penn Opening

The Guru hasn't been given the go-ahead to use the name, but a former WNBA All-Star has sent a resume to Penn, applying to fill the vacancy created last week when Pat Knapp's contract was not renewed.

North Carolina State Search

Nothing new, but stay tuned.

Maggie Dixon

The teleconference to select this year's Maggie Dixon Rookie Coach of the Year Award will be held this (Friday) morning and recent events should make the call fascinatng. The Women's Basketball Coaches Association will announce the winner soon as part of its release schedule.

Maryland Has Answers

Thanks to SID office's Sam Angell for coming up with name of jazzy music played during Terrapin introductions at the Comcast Center. It's Everytime We Touch by Cascada, which was quickly downloaded and three different versions are now housed in one of the IPods.

Theme Change

March to the Arch may be appropriate for St. Louis, the host city for the Women's Final Four, but for the two teams likely to play UConn, March to the Scaffold may be more appropriate.

Deviled Eggs

Was this just the worst 48 hours in overall Duke hoops history?

The Guru watched the men's demise to Villanova on the HD player on his laptop made available by CBS and the NCAA.

That's it for now.

-- Mel 

By Mel Greenberg

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Speed may kill but athleticism can be just as deadly,

The Maryland senior duo of point guard Kristi Toliver and forward Marissa Coleman paid their farewells to the Terrapins’ Comcast Center Tuesday night with one more significant win – a 71-56 triumph over Utah that moved them on to the Sweet 16 in the Raleigh Regional.

Top-seeded Maryland (30-4) will face No. 4 Vanderbilt (26-8) in Raleigh, N.C.

Ninth-seeded Utah (23-10) took an early 15-7 lead before the Terrapins began to control the boards and all other phases of the game the rest of the way.

Maryland’s 25 rebounds alone topped Utah’s overall total by one with Maryland claiming an overwhelming 54-24 advantage.

“It’s pure and simple, really, their strength over us and their physicality,” Utah coach Elaine Elliott said of her team’s disadvantage.

The veteran Utah coach said that factor was more critical than the home advantage of the Terrapins, who attracted 10,065 fans to Maryland’s spacious arena where the Terrapins have been unbeaten for two straight seasons.

Coleman finished with 18 points and 18 rebounds, while Toliver scored 17 points.

The duo, who are likely to be taken quickly in next month’s WNBA draft, began their careers here with an NCAA title their freshman season.

Coleman was non-plussed about her farewell home game but Toliver admitted to being a little misty-eyed.

“I got a little emotional toward the end, knowing that it was the last time I will get to play in front of the best fans in the country,” Toliver said. “So I’m sad, but it’s a great feeling knowing we get to play another game.”

It was Toliver’s three-pointer at the end of regulation in 2006 in Boston that completed a rally from a deep 13-point second half deficit against Atlantic Coast Conference rival Duke and sent the game into overtime for Maryland’s eventual national championship..

Toliver even found time during the game to chide ESPN analyst Debbie Antonelli, a former star at North Carolina State, during a timeout.

“I was just joking around because in warm-ups before the last game, she gave me a challenge, and in this game, she didn’t do that,” Toliver related. “So I went over to her and said, `Hey, you could challenge me two days ago and in this game you didn’t challenge me,’ so I said, `What’s the deal?’
“But I was just playing with her because she’s always been one of my favorite announcers.”

Antonelli was a little taken aback by Toliver’s approach, turning to the Guru on the row behind her, saying, “I’ve never had a player do that in all my years in broadcasting.”

Toliver and Coleman weren’t the only statistical stars against the Utes.

Demauria Liles added 12 points and 17 rebounds.

“We talked about it before the game,” Coleman said of the board work by her and Liles. “We said we were going to get every rebound. As a team when we are dominating on the boards, that’s when we are at our best.”

Though on the road, Utah seniors Kalee Whipple and Morgan Warburton were also impressive in their final games – Whipple scored 24 points and Warburton had 17.

Meanwhile, for all the prowess of the Atlantic Coast Conference during the season, Maryland, the regular season co-champion and tournament champion, will be the only representative in the regional semifinals.

The stunner of Tuesday night occurred in East Lansing, Mich., where top-seeded Duke in the Berkeley Regional fell to No. 9 Michigan State, 63-49.

The Spartans (22-10) on Saturday will meet No. 4 Iowa State (26-8) in the Berkeley Regional semifinals. The Wildcats advanced Tuesday night ending No. 12 Ball State’s Cinderella run, 71-57.

The Cardinal dispatched No. 5 Tennessee in the opening round making it the earliest exit for the Vols, the two-time defending champion.

“We’re extremely disappointed,” Maryland coach Brenda Frese said of Maryland being the only ACC team still alive. “But we are going to do our best and finest job we can to represent the league.”

The Trenton regional is all set after No. 1 Connecticut (35-0) added Florida to the Huskies’ victims list, beating the Gators, 87-59. Renee Montgomery had another outstanding performance in her final game in Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, scoring 25 points.

UConn will play No. 4 California (27-6).

UConn will play No. 4 California on Sunday in the Sovereign Bank Arena, while No. 2 Texas A&M (27-7) beat Minnesota, 73-42, in South Bend, Ind., on Notre Dame’s campus Tuesday night to advance against No. 6 Arizona State (25-8).

--- Mel

(The Guru’s Cut for those who like something more lengthy than print allows)

By Mel Greenberg

PISCATAWAY, N.J. - A season of aggravation has suddenly turned sweet for the Rutgers women’s basketball team.

The seventh-seeded Scarlet Knights delighted a home crowd of 3,348 in the Louis A. Brown Athletic Center Monday night, roaring to a 22-4 start and eventual 80-52 victory over No. 2 Auburn in the second round of the Oklahoma City Regional.

It was Rutgers’ first win over a high-profile opponent this season, sending the Scarlet Knights (21-12) on to the Sweet 16 for the fifth straight time. The Scarlet Knights had been 1-9 against nationally-ranked opponents.

Junior guard Epiphanny Prince, who has had to carry Rutgers on many nights, scored a game-high 27 points. But seniors Heather Zurich and Kia Vaughn in their final home game also contributed with Zurich shooting 5-of-12 from the field in the first half to get all 12 of her points out of the backcourt. Vaughn in the post finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds.

“Our two seniors had not known anything other than the Sweet 16, and to go out with anything less than that in their senior year would have been a disservice,” Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer said. “They stepped up big time.”

Brittany Ray also was in double figures with 12 points, while Wilmington’s Khadijah Rushdan ran an excellent floor game with nine points, 10 rebounds, and six assists.

Auburn’s DeWanna Bonner scored 17 points and Whitney Boddie scored 10.

The Tigers (30-4) were regular season champions of the Southeastern Conference and had reached as high as No. 3 in the Associated Press women’s poll in early February before finishing No. 8.

“Rutgers was outstanding, that was best basketball we’ve seen them play,” Auburn coach Nell Fortner said. “I fully expect them to get to the Final Four. I’m not putting pressure on them, but they are good enough to get there.”

A month ago even Stringer began to have doubts whether her team, which was still seeking its identity, could make the NCAA field.

Now Rutgers has a chance to advance to at least the Elite Eight in the wake of sixth-seeded Purdue’s upset of No. 3 North Carolina, 85-70, Monday night in Chattanooga, Tenn.

The Scarlet Knights will play the Boilermakers Sunday night in Oklahoma City.
“Most people know that this has been my most frustrating year of coaching, period, end of discussion,” Stringer said. “I have a headache when I think about it.

“I thought Heather was the X-factor. She and Kia made up their minds if they were going to go out, they were going to go out winners.”

The only moments of concern Monday night occurred early in the second half when Auburn crept within 10 points of Rutgers at 46-36 with 15 minutes, 27 seconds left in the game.

The Tigers’ rally brought painful memories of Rutgers’ 55-51 loss here to Tennessee on Jan. 3 after the Scarlet Knights held a 33-13 lead at halftime.

But there was no letdown last night especially after Ray responded with a critical three-point shot that launched a 16-4 run to seal the victory.

“It was huge,” Stringer said of Ray’s trey. “I knew that shot broke
Auburn’s) back and then there was no question in my mind that Epiphanny was going to make sure we would execute.”

Rutgers’ performance Monday night recalled the Scarlet Knights’ run to the Final Four and title game two years ago. They struggled early in the season but began turning things around near the end of January.

The current edition has taken longer but if Monday was a sign of things to come this weekend, it could make life interesting for Stringer in the near future.

A first-time nominee to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, Stringer’s fate is currently being considered along with Michael Jordan, Cynthia Cooper-Dyke and the other candidates for the induction class of 2009.

The winners are scheduled to be introduced at the men’s Final Four the Monday before the title game.

“If Vivian gets elected and her team is in the Women’s Final Four, obviously she will have to stay in St. Louis,” a source with the Hall recently said.

At the time of the discussion, the conflict was considered far-fetched, given Rutgers’ inconsistency.

After Monday night, however, that conflict is just two Rutgers wins from becoming reality.

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

The NCAA women’s basketball tournament found a way late Sunday night to catch the attention of the average man-in-the-street with No. 12 Ball State’s 71-55 startling upset of No. 5 Tennessee, the two-time defending national champion.

Fans who don’t follow the sport closely, do know Tennessee as a super-talented team, which most times is one of the stars of the Women’s Final Four.

Suddenly, the Vols (22-11) who are in the tournament record book with eight NCAA trophies, will be known as the losing team in the most historic upset of all time since the competition began in 1982.

It’s the first time a defending champion got bounced in the first round of the women’s tournament. Tennessee had made all previous Sweet 16 rounds, going 42-0 on the opening weekend.

Old Dominion, the 1985 champion, failed to make the NCAA field the following year.

Prior to the loss to Ball State, Tennessee’s quickest exit was handed by Xavier in the regional semifinals of the 2001 tournament.

Ball State (26-8), under first-year coach Kelly Packard, on the other hand becomes the heroine for mid-majors success after upsetting Bowling Green in the Mid-American Conference title game to earn an automatic bid.
The Cardinal will meet Iowa State tonight with advancement to the Sweet 16 at stake.

Until Sunday night, the most talked about ambush was the one that occurred in 1998 when No. 16 Harvard upset No. 1 Stanford in a tournament opener.

But that one always had some taint to those who followed the sport.
Stanford had lost two prominent starters to knee injuries just before the tournament got under way.

Harvard may have been the champion of the lowly-regarded Ivy League in tournament competition, but Crimson were more talented than their seed with Allison Feaster, who went on to stardom in the WNBA.

In an ironic twist, the ending to Tennessee’s not-so-grand season comes in the same one that Hall of Famer coach Pat Summitt became the first to go over a grand in victories. Her record is now at 1,005-93 for an .840 winning percentage.

Even though the Vols lost five starters including the sensational Candace Parker from last year’s championship most expected Tennessee to continue to be a high-profile outfit on the strength of one of the top-rated freshmen classes.

But Summitt’s team quickly began setting records of dubious distinction for the program with home losses and setbacks to unranked teams.

The Volunteers, whose No. 5 seed was their lowest in their history, plunged out of the Top 10 after missing elite company just once since 1985-86. They finished in the final Associated Press poll at No. 19, their lowest ranking ever.

Until now, there were just two previous reference points for Tennessee mediocrity.

One was 1984-85 season, the last time the Volunteers did not appear in the rankings.

The 1997 season was noteworthy for the Volunteers suffering 10 losses, most by narrow margins, but a reversal in the tournament that brought an NCAA title when All-American Chamique Holdsclaw was a sophomore.

One unintended victim of Ball State’s shocker was Temple coach Tonya Cardoza.

Although her Owls were eliminated Sunday afternoon by Florida, Cardoza was gaining momentum as the frontrunner for the WBCA’s Maggie Dixon Award that goes to a rookie Division I head coach.

But Packard is also a rookie and considering the upset and winning her conference tournament, as one fellow committee member said to the Guru, also on the committee, in a phone call shortly after Tennessee’s fate was official: “Do we really need to do a teleconference on Friday?”

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

The Guru has just finished going over his main Associated Press women's poll historical database and index files and even thinks after doing a test he can cleanly cut and paste some historical figures from the 33-year run in this file.

But first about the 2008-09 season after Week 19's release -- the final poll -- on Monday.

Connecticut, as mentioned, went wire-to-wire and extended its record finish to eight No. 1s.

For all the upsets, the lack of consensus in the sub-ranking world that exists week to week resulted in 17 of 37 teams ranked this year staying in the poll all the way.

They were:

Auburn, Baylor, California, Connecticut, Duke, Louisville

Maryland, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Stanford

Tennessee,Texas, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt, and Virginia

Additionally, California reaching 3 and Louisville reaching 5 were school highs.

Believe it or not the first four teams in the preseason poll were exactly the same at the finish: Connecticut, Stanford,  Maryland, and Oklahoma.

The fifth was Rutgers, which reached 3 and then eventually plunged out of the rankings for the biggest dive. Baylor started at 19 and reached five at the finish.

Only four other teams besides Rutgers were missing from the preseason poll -- Oklahoma State, Purdue, LSU, and Old Dominion.

In their place at the finish were Division I newbie South Dakota State, Pittsburgh, Kansas State, Florida, and Iowa State. It was also South Dakota State, Pittsburgh and Florida State's first-ever ranking in the final poll, while, Tennessee, for all its difficulty, survived to make the Vols the only team to appear in all 33 final rankings

Connecticut and Oklahoma were the only teams to stay in the Top 10 wire-to-wire and /Connecticut was the only team to stay in the Top Five all the way.

That said, first here is the entire list of teams to appear in the poll and their number in descending order.

Ranked Teams in poll history.

Total Top 10 Appearances This Decade and All-Time

(Decade begins with first week in January, 2000)

Total Top Five Apperances This Decade And All  Time

Most Coaching Appearances (Parerntheses indicate co-coaches on that listing)

Most Coaching Appearances Same School

-- Mel (and I hope this looks as clean  as it does right now before saving it to the system.

By Mel Greenberg

Homecomings of sorts and other sites of familiarities are all over the NCAA women’s basketball tournament bracket that was revealed Monday night for this year’s compelling three-week drama: Connecticut and 63 Other Teams.

The 11 teams in the Trenton Regional behind the overall No. 1 seeded Huskies had reasons to gulp hard knowing the barrier that stood between any of them and a shot to get to St. Louis for the Women’s Final Four.

Temple took great delight, however, for two reasons when ESPN finally got around to flashing the Owls’ name on the bracket board as the ninth-seeded team meeting eighth-seeded Florida at Connecticut to start their journey.

First, there was the sense of relief among the players who were beginning to wring their hands and squirm wondering whether the projections of themselves into the field as an at-large choice were all wrong.

“I was so nervous, I could not sit still,” said freshman Kristen McCarthy. “I’ve never been so antsy in my life. This is all new to me.”

Although a win over the Gators could mean a quick execution at the next turn at the hands of the Huskies, one player was overheard talking to another about the advantage of being in Storrs for the opener.

“This is great. We’re going to have all those thousands of fans cheering for us in our game because of Tonya.”

She was speaking of first-year coach Tonya Cardoza, a longtime assistant to Geno Auriemma during Connecticut’s rise to power.

Connecticut fans cheered for Temple several seasons ago under the former eight-site two-pod format when the Owls in an opposite bracket, played Rutgers, the Huskies’ arch rival in the Big East Conference.

For the past month, the Connecticut media had been fantasizing over the potential of Cardoza coming back to her stomping grounds after the Owls began making themselves looking NCAA worthy.

Cardoza had thought about it, also, and was delighted when she learned what lies ahead.

“Yes, yes, oh yes,” she gushed about the looming collision a win over Florida would bring assuming UConn quickly dispatches No. 16 Vermont.

On the other hand, life is different than in the past, and Cardoza knows she can only look at the opponent directly ahead.

“We’re not looking at UConn,” the former Virginia star and ex-teammate of former Temple coach Dawn Staley said. “I don’t think anyone is looking at UConn. Right now, we’re just focused on our opponent and our opponent is Florida. When I was at Connecticut, we could do that and look past things. Right now, we’re not looking past Florida.”

Still, two other members of Cardoza’s staff took delight in also making a return to the Nutmeg State.

“We’re going back to campus,” assistant coach Brittany Hunter said to grad assistant Stacey Nasser.

Hunter played for the Huskies, graduating last year, and it will be the second time this season she will have return to a ;previous residence. Prior to transferring to UConn, Hunter played at Duke, whom the Owls visited during the season. Nasser was a team manager last season.

The Florida game itself breeds some familiarity in that Temple had a series against the Gators under Staley. Florida’s coach Amanda Butler is in her second season and had previously coached at N.C. Charlotte, playing the Owls for several seasons after the 49ers joined the Atlantic Ten.

Temple’s selection, incidentally, keeps Cardoza alive as one of the top contenders for the Maggie Dixon Award given by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association to the top rookie head coach.

Back to the ACC Villanova’s appearance as a No. 8 seed against No. 9 Utah at top-seeded Maryland’s Comcast Center means Wildcats senior Laura Kurz will return to the arena she visited when the former Germantown Academy played for Duke in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

“Yeah, it’s in the back of my mind but not really in my mind,” Kurz said. “Right now we just have to worry about Utah. I’m just thrilled we get to stay on the East Coast and College Park is an easy trip for our fans and family.”

Kurz has NCAA experience, painful as it is. In 2006 she was on the bench at Duke when Maryland zipped the Blue Devils in overtime to win the national championship.

Terrapins all-Americans Marissa Coleman and Kristi Tolliver were freshman that season with Tolliver making the famous three-point shot that completed a wild second-half comeback and sent the game into overtime.

Maryland will meet No. 16 Dartmouth in the other game that is part of the overall Raleigh regional.

If No. 3 Louisville gets to the region title game against the Terrapins the matchup will reunite Cardinals coach Jeff Walz with Brenda Frese, his former Maryland boss.

Duke Be-Deviled NCAA committee chair Jacki Silar avoided havoc at home in Durham, N.C., when the Duke senior women’s administrator’s own team earned a projected No. 1 seed while she was forced to be out of the room during deliberations under committee guidelines.

However, the Blue Devils were placed in East Lansing, Mich., at Michigan State, where Duke coach Joanne P. McCallie previously coached. Her departure to replace Gail Goestenkors, who went to Texas two seasons ago, did not sit well with the fan base, who are sure to make their feelings known if the two teams meet in the second round.

Dragons Misery to Joy Drexel athletic director Eric Zillmer over the excitement caused by the Drexel women winning a first-ever Colonial Athletic Association women’s basketball title: “This has been great. We’ve still been hurting here from two seasons ago when the men didn’t get picked for the tournament. But Denise (Dillon) is so great with what she’s done with the team and they have really helped the healing process from what happened to Bruiser (Flint) and his team.”
Drexel as a 12 seed is going to Albuquerque, N.M., to meet No. 5 Kansas State.
“We’re checking our alumni base for fans,” Zillmer said. “We might have a few out there.
“The great thing about our two programs is we don’t have a men’s or women’s program, per se, we treat both squads under one umbrella as our basketball program, period.”

Family Affair Mika Ryan, head of the Trenton local organizing committee, is obviously delighted with Connecticut’s placement and what it will mean for ticket sales in the Sovereign Bank Arena.
“I just hope the games for the Regional Final are competitive, although I don’t know if any game involving Connecticut right now would be competitive the way they are playing.
“On the other hand, a Virginia-Connecticut game would be terrific.”
She has good reason to have that potential matchup on her wish list.
Virginia coach Debbie Ryan is her sister-in-law Mika Ryan has familiarity with Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma from his days as an assistant for Debbie Ryan before he took the UConn job in the late 1980s.

See Viv Smile Anyone with access to wire photos out of Rutgers’ selection party will notice a departure from recent years in terms of the reaction from coach C. Vivian Stringer when the Scarlet Knights would appear on the board./

Several times Rutgers as a higher seed would get sent to the home court of a lower seed. And there have been other problems such as last year’s stunner having Rutgers and Connecticut meet in a regional final even though they compete in the same conference.

This time the tables are reversed. Rutgers will be home this weekend as a No.7 seed in the Oklahoma City regional hosting No. 10 Virginia Commonwealth in the rest round. No. 2 Auburn will meet No. 15 Lehigh, the Patriot League winner who will make the short trip over I-78 from Bethlehem to Piscataway.

The Scarlet Knights are clear of Connecticut and longtime nemesis Tennessee all the way to the Final Four. While the road is still dangerous, it’s nothing Rutgers can’t handle if all the pieces come together.

Stringer, who was shown smiling and her reaction: “We can be the Cinderella.”
 

-- Mel

By Jonathan Tannenwald
Philly.com

You might have seen the selection show on ESPN tonight, but just in case, the field of 64 teams in this year's NCAA Tournament has been announced and we have it right here on the blog.

The No. 1 seeds are not that surprising: superpower Connecticut in the East (Trenton), Duke in the West (Berkeley), ACC champion Maryland in the South (Raleigh) and Big 12 champion Oklahoma in the Midwest (Oklahoma City).

The Final Four games will be Trenton vs. Berkeley and Raleigh vs. Oklahoma City.

The news is quite good for Philadelphia-area fans, as Drexel, Villanova and Temple all made the field. The Dragons did so automatically as the Colonial Athletic Association champions, while the Wildcats and Owls proved worthy of at-large bids.

Drexel received a 12-seed and will face Kansas State in Albequerque, N.M., as part of the Raleigh regional. The winner of that game will play either 4-seed Vanderbilt or 13-seed Western Connecticut.

Villanova receieved an 8-seed and will face Utah in College Park, Md. The winner of that game will almost certainly play the Terrapins, which will face Ivy League champions Dartmouth in the first round. The hedging of terms only exists because of the history of 16-seed Ancient Eight champions knocking off top seeds, but the Terrapins will certainly be expected to roll past the Big Green.

Temple received a 9-seed and will face Florida in Storrs, Conn., as part of the Trenton regional. No need to hedge here: the winner will face Connecticut in the second round. Yes, this means Owls head coach Tonya Cardoza could face her former boss, Geno Auriemma, in only her first season after leaving the Huskies.

I won't overlook Rutgers, whose fan base includes part of the Philadelphia area, and yes, I know many of you read this blog a lot. The Scarlet Knights were given a 7-seed and will face 10-seed Virginia Commonwealth, an at-large big recipient from the CAA.

But while this year's Scarlet Knights were not of the caliber of previous editions, they will surely get a big boost from playing the first two rounds on their home floor: the RAC in Piscataway, N.J.

You wonder what Auburn coach Nell Fortner, whose Tigers drew 15-seed Patriot League champions Lehigh in the first round, thinks of that.

But the Tigers are not the only team that will face a lower seed on its home floor: 10-seed San Diego State gets to play in San Diego, drawing 7-seed DePaul in the first round. The Aztecs could face 2-seed Stanford in the second round.

Top seed Oklahoma could also face 8-seed Iowa in Iowa City, while Angel McCoughtry and 3-seed Louisville will have to beat 6-seed Louisana State in Baton Rouge to reach the Sweet 16.

One more interesting potential second-round matchup: Duke coach Joanne P. McAuley against her former team, 9-seed Michigan State - and on the Spartans' floor.

Here is the schedule of first-round games, sorted by region and seed. First-round games will be played on Saturday, March 21 and Sunday, March 22, with second-round games on March 23 and 24. All times are Eastern.

Trenton Regional

Storrs, Conn.
1. Connecticut vs. 16. Vermont (March 22, 12:00 p.m., ESPN2)
8. Florida vs. 9. Temple (March 22, approx. 2:30 p.m., ESPN)

Los Angeles, Calif.
5. Virginia vs. 12. Marist (March 21, approx. 10:30 p.m., ESPN2)
4. California vs. 13. Fresno State (March 21, 8:00 p.m., ESPN2)

Duluth, Minn.
6. Arizona State vs. 11. Georgia (March 21, 1:00 p.m., ESPN2)
3. Florida State vs. 14. North Carolina A&T (March 21, approx. 3:30 p.m., ESPN2)

South Bend, Ind.
7. Notre Dame vs. 10. Texas (March 22, approx. 2:30 p.m., ESPN)
2. Texas A&M vs. 15. Evansville (March 22, 12:00 p.m., ESPN2)

Berkeley Regional

East Lansing, Mich.
1. Duke vs. 16. Austin Peay (March 22, approx. 2:30 p.m., ESPN)
8. Middle Tennessee vs. 9. Michigan State (March 22, 12:00 p.m., ESPN2)

Bowling Green, Ohio
5. Tennessee vs. 12. Ball State (March 22, approx. 8:30 p.m., ESPN2)
4. Iowa State vs. 13. East Tennessee State (March 22, 6:00 p.m., ESPN2)

Columbus, Ohio
6. Texas vs. 11. Mississippi State (March 21, 12:00 p.m., ESPN2)
3. Ohio State vs. 14. Sacred Heart (March 21, approx. 2:30 p.m., ESPN2)

San Diego, Calif.
7. DePaul vs. 10. San Diego State (March 21, 8:00 p.m., ESPN2)
2. Stanford vs. 15. UC-Santa Barbara (March 21, approx. 10:30 p.m., ESPN2)

Raleigh Regional

College Park, Md.
1. Maryland vs. 16. Dartmouth (March 22, approx. 2:30 p.m., ESPN)
8. Villanova vs. 9. Utah (March 22, 12:00 p.m., ESPN2)

Albuquerque, N.M.
5. Kansas State vs. 12. Drexel (March 21, approx. 10:30 p.m., ESPN2)
4. Vanderbilt vs. 13. Western Carolina (March 21, 8:00 p.m., ESPN2)

Baton Rouge, La.
6. Louisiana State vs. 11. Wisconsin-Green Bay (March 22, 7:00 p.m., ESPN2)
3. Louisville vs. 14. Liberty (March 22, approx. 9:30 p.m., ESPN2)

Lubbock, Tex.
7. South Dakota State vs. 10. Texas Christian (March 22, 7:00 p.m., ESPN2)
2. Baylor vs. 15. Texas-San Antonio (March 22, approx. 9:30 p.m., ESPN2)

Oklahoma City Regional

Iowa City, Iowa
1. Oklahoma vs. 16. Prairie View A&M (March 22, 7:00 p.m., ESPN2)
8. Iowa vs. 9. Georgia Tech (March 22, approx. 9:30 p.m., ESPN2)

Seattle, Wash.
5. Xavier vs. 12. Gonzaga (March 21, approx. 10:30 p.m., ESPN2)
4. Pittsburgh vs. 13. Montana (March 21, approx. 8:00 p.m., ESPN2)

Chattanooga, Tenn.
6. Purdue vs. 11. Charlotte (March 21, approx. 2:30 p.m., ESPN2)
3. North Carolina vs. 14. Central Florida (March 21, approx. 12:00 p.m., ESPN2)

Piscataway, N.J.
7. Rutgers vs. 10. Virginia Commonwealth (March 21, approx. 2:30 p.m., ESPN2)
2. Auburn vs. 15. Lehigh (March 21, 12:00 p.m., ESPN2)

By Mel Greenberg

There is no mystery as to who will be the stars of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament selection show Monday night hen the 64-team field is announced on ESPN.

Unbeaten Connecticut (33-0), which has dominated the competition to earn potential acclamation as the greatest of all time, is expected to receive the overall No. 1 seed and be placed as the top team in the Trenton regional.

Two wins there will lead to the Women’s Final Four in St. Louis.

“If we win our next six games, we certainly can be one of the six greatest teams here,” Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma said referring to five previous NCAA championships claimed by the Huskies.

But UConn will still be a bit antsy anticipating what barriers will have to be hurdled to advance to the Final Four.

Connecticut’s appearance in Trenton could bring the state capital of New Jersey its most notoriety since General Washington spent Christmas Eve at a tavern on the banks of the Delaware getting entertained at the expense of a few British troops.

Auriemma isn’t ready to declare his Huskies unbeatable but in a recent TV interview he referenced Germantown Academy’s Caroline Doty, saying of the freshman, “If she hadn’t had hurt her knee (early January), then I’d be ready to say that I really, really like our chances.”

UConn also has sophomore Maya Moore, who has followed in the footsteps of Diana Taurasi as one of the best of all time.

The Huskies’ loaded roster has made Trenton the Forbidden City for the rest of the NCAA hopefuls not wanting any part of UConn until the national semifinals.

Locally, it will be the women’s turn at Villanova and Temple to party Monday night after their male counterparts celebrated their NCAA placements Sunday night.

The most fun, however, will be in West Philadelphia where Drexel will arrive for the telecast only concerned with when the Dragons will pop up on the TV screen.

They already know they are in the field, courtesy of their win over host James Madison Sunday afternoon for the Colonial Athletic Association title that earned a first-ever NCAA bid, which comes automatically with the conference title.

Villanova is not having a public event, but the the Wildcats seem a lock to earn an at-large bid after earning the fourth seed in the Big East tournament and beating Notre Dame in the quarterfinals.

The Owls will host a party even though they are slightly less assured of a similar bid after losing to eventual champion Charlotte in the semifinals of the Atlantic Ten tournament.

However, Temple, under first-year coach Tonya Cardoza, made a strong charge at the close of the regular season and owns solid rankings in the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI).

Cardoza, a former longtime assistant to Auriemma, replaced the legendary Dawn Staley last July after Staley departed for South Carolina.

The high heel will be on the other foot for a change at Rutgers, which will be a host for the first two rounds of the tournament this weekend.

The Scarlet Knights struggled most of the season before becoming NCAA-worthy down the stretch.

However, Rutgers will earn a middle seed, regionally, but as a host gets to play in its own arena.

In previous years, selection night has been a time of distress for coach C. Vivian Stringer. Her team would get a high seed and then get sent to some low-seeded team’s home court to open the tournament.

But her birthday should be a little enjoyable on Monday night.

“I don’t know who is going to get sent to Rutgers, but I do know that they will not be happy,” Villanova coach Harry Perretta said. “I wouldn’t want to be there right now as a visiting high seed because of the way Kia Vaughn has been playing.”

Ironically, remove Connecticut from the equation and suspense is all over the place involving everything else about tonight’s announcement.

There are a bunch of contenders for the other No. 1 seeds, but none of them go by the name of Tennessee, the two-time defending champions.

The Vols experienced their worst season in more than two decades and may not even be among the top 16 seeds.

In an interesting twist, one of the contenders for a No. 1 seed is Duke, whose senior women’s administrator Jackie Silar, is the head of the NCAA tournament committee.

Under operating procedures, Silar cannot be involved in the deliberations when the Blue Devils get discussed.

Should Duke not receive a No. 1 seed and get placed in UConn’s portion of the bracket it will be the first time the chair’s own team got dealt a bad hand after she left the room.

Other teams contending for No. 1 seeds are Maryland, Oklahoma, Baylor, Louisville, Auburn and Stanford.

If UConn is the best team ever, the field will also contain a school with one of the worst entry records of all time after Evansville (15-18) edged Creighton 47-45 to win the Missouri Valley title Sunday.
Conference favorites Liberty (Big South), Stanford (Pac-10), Sacred Heart (Northeast), as mentioned Drexel (CAA), and Wisconsin-Green Bay (Horizon) won automatic bids on Sunday.

However, Boston U. (America East) and Bowling Green (Mid-American) did not and faced tough prospects to earn at-large bids in the field.
Teams previously on the fringe of the bubble were Indiana, Minnesota, Boston College, Richmond, and Georgia.

Other bubble teams seemingly likely for selection were Georgia Tech, South Florida and Mississippi State.

- Mel

By Mel Greenberg
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Drexel’s stars are going dancing to the NCAA women’s basketball tournament as first-time participants.
The Dragons captured their first-ever Colonial Athletic Association regular season title Sunday with a gritty 64-58 victory over host James Madison in Harrisonburg, Va., to gain an automatic bid.
Drexel also won the regular season title for the first time since beginning CAA competition in 2001-02.
Coach Denise Dillon’s team led by as many as 16 in the second half but had to withstand a fierce rally by the Duchesses (23-9) down the stretch.
Gabriela Marginean, the CAA player of the year, finished with a game-high 26 points, including a 14-for-14 effort on the foul line.
Drexel (24-8) matched its all-time win streak set in 1989-90 by taking its 16th straight.
A day earlier, the Dragons bested their all-time season win mark set that same season when Drexel toppled perennial CAA power Old Dominion on Saturday.
The Monarchs had been 51-0 with 17 straight titles in conference play.
Richmond was the last non-ODU team to win a CAA crown in 19991 and Drexel associate head coach Amy Mallon played on that team before she transferred to St. Joseph’s.
The Dragons by winning the bid made sure they did not have to suffer the selection day agony of the men’s team two seasons ago when Bruiser Flint’s group was bypassed for an at-large bid.

-- Back later with much more -- Mel