Sports
 

Sweet 16 field features same faces

Top teams, players all tournament-tested; UC-Santa Barbara may fall back to earth

Cougar Sports Services

Before last Sunday, the Lady Cougars may have been the Cinderella team of the Women's NCAA Basketball Tournament. 

But the Lady Gauchos wrested the glass slipper and golden carriage from the Lady Cougars and rode off to the Sweet Sixteen. 

The Sweet Sixteen includes most of the usual suspects at the top of women's college basketball -- Duke, Connecticut, Tennessee, Texas -- and a handful of teams that have surfaced recently as heavy hitters. 

And then there's UC-Santa Barbara, which seems oddly out of place. "One of these kids is doing their own thing. One of these kids, doesn't belong." 

The Lady Gauchos defeated both the No. 6 seed Colorado Buffaloes and, of course, the No. 3 seed Lady Cougars. But both victories were on their home court, the Lady Gaucho Thunderdome. 

Unlike the men's tournament, the women's bracket tends to weed out upstarts, and the Lady Gauchos may find that out when they travel to the Hartford Civic Center to take on another team on its home court. 

UC-Santa Barbara will face the No. 2 seed UConn Lady Huskies in the Sweet Sixteen round, and senior Diana Taurasi is somewhat stingy when it comes to allowing other teams to win. 

In the other East regional, No. 1 seed Penn State will face No. 5 seed Notre Dame. The Lady Lions boast perhaps the nation's best 1-2 punch in All-American Kelly Mazzante and rising star Tanisha Wright. 

No. 1 seed Duke shouldn't have much trouble in the Mideast regional, with three-time first team Associated Press All-American Alana Beard leading the way. The Lady Blue Devils are playing as well as any team in the country. 

No. 5 seed Louisiana Tech could give them trouble, as the Lady Techsters have won 21 consecutive games. The No. 3 seed Lady Eagles of Boston College took care of business Monday against Ohio State after nearly falling in the first round to the No. 14 seed Eastern Michigan. 

In the Midwest Regional, No. 1 seed Tennessee once again looks tough to beat. The Lady Vols have made it to the Sweet Sixteen an unparalleled 23 consecutive times, and have failed to qualify for the final eight only four times. 

The West might be the most unpredictable regional of the lot, since all of the top four seeds have advanced. No. 1 seed Texas, who appeared in the Final Four last season, still has most of the talent remaining from that squad, and the Lady Longhorns have destroyed their first two opponents by a combined total of 54 points. 

But No. 2 seed Purdue, who the Lady Cougars nearly beat earlier in the season, have been solid all season and have lost only one out of their last 21 games. No. 3 Georgia and No. 4 Louisiana State are both capable of beating either team.

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