Women’s March Madness bracket ripe for upsets

WASHINGTON — More March Madness chaos within the girls’s NCAA Tournament may well be looming at the horizon if the previous few months of upsets are any indication of what is across the nook.

Upsets have not been a trademark of the ladies’s event. Since 2007, 11 girls’s groups seeded tenth or decrease have reached the Sweet 16. That’s not up to part the choice of lower-seeded males’s workforce that experience made that run.

But indicators are this yr’s event is ripe for extra surprises.

“The talent is spread out a little bit more now,” UConn trainer Geno Auriemma mentioned. “I think this might be one of the more exciting tournaments in recent years.”

This season has been filled with eye-popping upsets, together with 19 losses via peak 10 groups to unranked faculties. That was once the 7th maximum in a season since 2000, in step with Stats Perform. That endured a development from the 2021-22 season when there have been 24 — the second one maximum over that span.

For the Huskies, it is already been a ancient yr — now not one they might wish to bookmark. Connecticut, beset via accidents for many of the season, misplaced consecutive video games for the first time in 30 years, finishing one of the crucial spectacular streaks in sports activities historical past. One of the ones defeats got here to unranked Marquette a couple of days after dropping to No. 1 South Carolina — the one unbeaten workforce heading into the NCAA Tournament.

The Gamecocks had been the one workforce resistant to the disappointed worm this season. Dawn Staley’s squad did face demanding situations right through its unbeaten run, trailing on the part in 3 contests and via double-digits in a couple of others.

“Well, until somebody beats South Carolina, they are still undefeated,” Auriemma mentioned of the protecting champions. “They’re still the favorite as they should be.”

The Gamecocks are in all probability be in the most productive place to get to the Final Four in Dallas when the NCAA Tournament bracket is published on Sunday night time. South Carolina will play its opening two video games at house and are a lock to be taking part in the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight video games 90 mins away in Greenville.

The NCAA did its 2nd divulge of the tip 16 seeds for the event on Feb. 23 and because then best 4 groups — South Carolina, UConn, Virginia Tech and Iowa — didn’t lose video games. It took a last-second shot by Caitlin Clark in opposition to Indiana for the Hawkeyes to stick in that team.

It wasn’t simply the top-ranked groups that had been being overwhelmed. Ten common season convention champions misplaced of their postseason tournaments, together with a number of that did not even make it to the general. With such a lot of favorites falling, the NCAA Tournament variety committee faces some tough selections

“As challenging as it makes it for us, it’s good for the game,” variety committee chair Lisa Peterson mentioned in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “The only thing we can agree on right away is the number one overall seed. The upsets have inspired a lot more in-depth conversations. There’s so many things that have happened in the last few weeks that are exciting for the game.”

Last season the Creighton girls’s workforce made a run to the regional ultimate as a 10-seed. That was once best the 5th time a double-digit seed had made it that a ways. Auriemma thinks that might occur extra regularly with the proper draw.

“Where you’re seeded may be important, but whose bracket you’re in and if you catch the wrong team at the wrong time could change it,” he said. “Years ago that didn’t matter as much as the favorites just rolled through.”-