The Spokane region offers some surprising tournament participants, tasty matchups galore, and a potential battle between Muffet McGraw’s improbable top seed and the remarkable young group Kelly Graves has on a fast track to championship contention.
More from NCAA
- Your Day in Women’s Basketball, April 6: Stanford defeats Arizona in a tightly contested matchup to win the national title
- Your Day in Women’s Basketball, March 30: UConn and Baylor deliver a classic battle of storied programs
- Your Day in Women’s Basketball, March 26: Louisville and Texas A&M survive and advance
- Your Day in Women’s Basketball, March 23: Highlights from the first round of the NCAA Tournament
- Your Day in Women’s Basketball, March 16: Tournament bracket released
It’s definitely fair to point to Oklahoma as a controversial choice, with just a 16-14 record, but the strength of schedule and late surge got them in. The committee didn’t do them any favors with matchup, though: DePaul sank 16 threes en route to a dominant Big East championship win over Marquette, and is a legit threat to win it all.
Here’s your look at the Spokane bracket, complete with predictions, which given how unpredictable March is, might be the biggest madness of all:
Can’t Miss Players
Jessica Shepard at Notre Dame is a true inside-outside star. Guard Sabrina Ionescu of Oregon, per one WNBA talent evaluator, would be no worse than the second overall pick in this year’s draft if the sophomore were eligible. Kelsey Mitchell, projected second overall pick on the WNBA Big Board, is an elite scorer and hits 40.8 percent of her threes. Chennedy Carter, freshman point guard extraordinaire for Texas A&M can win games by herself.
Best first round matchup
You’d be hard-pressed to do better than five seed DePaul against 12 seed Oklahoma. How do I know? Last time they played, back in November, DePaul won 111-108 in overtime on this three-pointer at the buzzer by Amarah Coleman.
Blue Demons win 111-108! Here is Amarah Coleman’s buzzer beating three to knock off #21 Oklahoma! #depaulball #SCtop10 pic.twitter.com/CyU02dgjty
— DePaul Women's Basketball (@DePaulWBBHoops) November 14, 2017
DePaul can run, but so can Oklahoma. And it’s not clear the Blue Demons can slow down Vionise Pierre-Louis, who went for 25 and 16 in the first one. Two legendary coaches in Sherri Coale and Doug Bruno squaring off. Seriously, this might be the best first round matchup in any bracket.
Biggest potential upset
LSU-Central Michigan has to be the most intriguing to me. The Tigers earned a six seed by doing everything pretty well. But Central Michigan scores in bunches, with a 113.5 points per 100 possessions, per HerHoopStats, ranked sixth in the country. They shoot 38.4 percent from three as a team. Don’t be surprised if the Chippewas win this one.
What Elite Eight looks like
Both Mitchell and Carter could go off and make this moot, and if DePaul survives round one they might run some people, even Notre Dame (given their lack of depth) out of the gym. But form looks likeliest to me here, a Notre Dame-Oregon Elite Eight.
The pick
Kelly Graves is going to the Final Four. His team is filled with sophomores that play like seniors. There’s depth, a pair of guards in Ionescu and Matie Cazorla who are both elite playmakers, crazy efficiency from Ruthy Hebard. There’s less wrong with this team than almost anyone, and that usually tells over the test of an NCAA Tournament.