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This Week in the Big 12: No. 1 Baylor is rewarded with… Greensboro?

STORRS, CONNECTICUT- NOVEMBER 17: Baylor Head coach Kim Mulkey on the sideline during her sides loss during the UConn Huskies Vs Baylor Bears NCAA Women's Basketball game at Gampel Pavilion, on November 17th, 2016 in Storrs, Connecticut. (Photo by Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)
STORRS, CONNECTICUT- NOVEMBER 17: Baylor Head coach Kim Mulkey on the sideline during her sides loss during the UConn Huskies Vs Baylor Bears NCAA Women's Basketball game at Gampel Pavilion, on November 17th, 2016 in Storrs, Connecticut. (Photo by Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)

Our Big 12 columnist has questions about the NCAA seeding.

Each of the four NCAA women’s basketball regionals will be played on courts that are 94 feet long and 50 feet wide. The rim will be 10 feet off the ground, and the free throw line will be 15 feet away.

They’re all the same court, so where it’s located doesn’t matter, right?

Of course not.

Games in the NCAA Tournament, like any college basketball game, are influenced by the location. It can be wildly advantageous to play in a nearby regional.

Unfortunately for the No. 1 team in the country, a nearby regional doesn’t exist.

On Monday, the NCAA announced its top 16 seeds if the season were to end today. Baylor was, deservedly, atop the list. However, with none of the four region locations close to Baylor, the Bears project to be in Greensboro: 1,159 miles from campus.

In year’s past, there has been a regional site much closer to Baylor, but this year the four locations (Albany, Chicago, Greensboro and Portland) are not merely a hop, skip and a jump away. They’re more like a drive, flight and another flight.

The location is unfortunate for Baylor, but not indicative of a chronic problem. In recent years, a regional has been in Dallas and Oklahoma City and next year, Dallas will again host.

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But that doesn’t help Baylor (21-1, 11-0 in the Big 12) this season. If Baylor wants to reach the Final Four, they’ll have to win a couple games at home and then win a couple far from it.

Of course, there’s the matter of who they play.

The current projection has them in what seems like a daunting field: Notre Dame, Maryland and South Carolina. But that will almost certainly change between now and tournament time.

The Big 12 did get one other team announced in the NCAA’s top 16, as Iowa State was tabbed as the No. 15 overall team and a four-seed.

The Cyclones (18-5, 8-3) are in the midst of one of the best turnaround seasons of any team in college basketball this season; they’re the only team in the top 16 to have posted a losing record a season ago.

ISU has not advanced to the Sweet 16 since 2010, so earning a four seed and getting a couple of home games would be crucial for them to return to that second weekend. The Cyclones are 10-4 all-time in NCAA Tournament games played in Ames.

That leaves one question: what about Texas? The AP poll has ranked the Longhorns (20-5, 9-4) above the Cyclones all year, and UT is ahead of ISU in the Big 12 standings, but bracketologists have long predicted that ISU would receive more favorable treatment from the committee than UT.

They were right.

The Longhorns’ résumé did not impress the committee enough. In the non-conference, UT dropped two home games to SEC schools. Although one was a bit of a blowout, it was excusable because it was to Mississippi State, now a one-seed. However, the other loss has looked worse and worse as the season has gone on.

Falling to Tennessee wasn’t too marring when it happened, but after the Volunteers dropped six (6!) in a row last month, the defeat looks worse for UT. Pair those with losses at Kansas State and at home to West Virginia, add in only a couple truly good wins (on the road at ISU and at WVU), and that doesn’t equal a good enough compilation for the selection committee.

Monday night showed us that the committee likes Baylor, a lot, even if the regional locations don’t favor them. And they like Iowa State, too. But they aren’t ready to give Texas a top four seed.

That’s where we’re at right now, but remember, we’ve got five weeks left until the big decisions are made. Iowa State, Baylor and Texas still have to play each other once more. Then there’s the Big 12 Tournament.

Take Monday for what it is: a projection. There’s a lot of basketball left to be played, folks.

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