Lady Vols basketball’s NCAA Tournament resume is set. Tennessee finishes the year 16-13 (8-8 SEC) and now awaits its March Madness positioning.
While the record looks rough, UT is thought to be essentially a lock to earn an at-large bid, but the seeding won’t be pretty. Most bracketologies have the Lady Vols as an 8-seed in the NCAA Tournament. That means Tennessee would hit the road to play at one of the 1-seeds’ home floors for the opening two rounds.
The essentially cemented options for 1-seeds are South Carolina, Texas, UCLA and UConn. The selection committee looks to avoid rematches in the first two rounds at any cost, but that won’t be possible if the Lady Vols are slotted at their projected 8 or 9-seed mark. That’s because Tennessee has already played and lost to each of these four teams.
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There’s also an effort to not match teams up with conference foes in those opening two rounds if possible. That may take South Carolina and Texas off the table, though it’s not a steadfast rule and can be broken if necessary.
That makes the likely host site for Tennessee either UCLA or UConn. The committee also looks to place teams loosely based on geography and travel, but that can easily be adjusted, especially for a program with the resources of the Lady Vols. It’s not like one of Los Angeles or Storrs is right down the road, either.
However, with all that said, it might also be tough for the committee to pass up the storyline of Tennessee heading to UConn for the opening two rounds. Mixing the history between the teams and other factors is the perfect storm.
If the Lady Vols do get slotted in with the Huskies, it far from guarantees a rematch, though. Tennessee would have to survive its first-round matchup with a similarly seeded team while coming off a seven-game losing skid.
There is also, of course, a chance that the committee doesn’t see the Lady Vols as an 8 or 9-seed, and this conundrum is voided.
