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Madness applies for women, too
By Michelle Touson March 17, 2005 |
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ALBUQUERQUE - My picks for the first round of the NCAA women's tournament start in the Chattanooga regional with Texas over Oral Roberts. Look for coach Jody Conrad and the lady Longhorns to go deep into the tournament. Among the other first-round games, it'll be Boston College over Houston, Duke over Canisius, and North Carolina over Coppin State. In the Tempe regional, start with Mississippi over George Washington and I'm going to take Arizona State over Eastern Kentucky because the Sun Devils played tough when they came to New Mexico. Also in the Tempe regional, this is a game I really want to see - it's going to be one of the best games in the first round, fourth seed Notre Dame and 13th seed UC Santa Barbara. The Gauchos are in it every year and people take them for granted. This is a game I'm going to go with the California love and I'm going to give it to the Gauchos. In the bottom half of the Tempe bracket, there's the battle of Virginia, so let's give it to Old Dominion over the Cavaliers just because. I'm going to throw the love out there for Nancy Lieberman because I can remember when she was playing with Old Dominion. When you think of TCU, think of Shawndura Irvin, niece of Dallas Cowboy and future Hall of Famer Michael Irvin. She is setting records in rebounding and blocking and she is just a phenomenal player. The Horned Frogs play Oregon and you can definitely look for TCU to come out of that one. My underdogs are the lady Bears of Baylor, coached by Kim Mulkey-Robinson. She won championships as a player at Louisiana Tech and she's turned this team around. Let's go over to the East and the Philadelphia regional. This is the one everyone in New Mexico is concerned about because of where the lady Lobos are sitting in the first round. You have Tennessee over West Carolina and New Mexico and then I'm definitely saying lady Lobos over Purdue. This would set up a New Mexico-Tennessee matchup in the second round. If you don't know the lady Lobos are very serious, I'm going way out on the deep of the limb and I'm going to say they're going to beat Tennessee. It's been six years since Pat Summitt has won a championship and I know the lady Vols are primed. But so are the lady Lobos. There is a team getting no respect - the sixth-seeded Temple Owls, coached by Olympian and WNBA star Dawn Staley. The Owls won the Atlantic-10 tournament only to get the sixth seed and a meeting with No. 11 Louisiana Tech. Now they've got things to prove and a chip on their shoulder. My other dark horse team coming up is Rutgers, coached by legendary C. Vivian Stringer. Her team played giant-killer this year, knocking off three No. 1s in Texas, LSU and Tennessee. I think Rutgers can get to the Elite Eight and maybe the Final Four, but will open play against Hartford. With Maryland and Wisconsin-Green Bay, put your money on Wisconsin-Green Bay. There is also Michigan State over Alcorn State, USC over Louisville, Vanderbilt over Montana, Kanas State over Bowling Green, and here's another dark horse - one of my alma maters - Florida State. The lady Seminoles over Richmond, UConn over Dartmouth, Utah over Iowa State, and Stanford and the phenom Candice Wiggins over Santa Clara. Michelle Touson will be covering the NCAA Women's tournament throughout March Madness listen to her commentary on the radio on 1430 KVVN San Jose and 1110 KLIB Sacramento. |
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