Times wires
Monday, March 14, 2011
The Florida State women's basketball team will play in its seventh straight NCAA Tournament on Sunday.
And the Seminoles won't have to travel far for their first game.
FSU (23-7) was awarded a No. 3 seed by the NCAA selection committee Monday and will travel to Auburn, Ala., to play No. 14 seed Samford (25-7). The Seminoles, who reached the Elite Eight last season in their 10th NCAA appearance, earned a third seed for the second straight season.
The Seminoles were one of four state teams to get a berth.
Miami, like FSU, was an at-large selection out of the ACC receiving a No. 3 seed. The Hurricanes (27-4), in their seventh appearance, face Big South conference tournament champion Gardner-Webb (23-10), which makes its tournament debut.
Miami is back in the NCAA women's Tournament for the first time since 2004.
UCF and Stetson earned bids by winning their league tournaments. The Conference USA champion Knights (22-10), in their fourth appearance, got the No. 13 seed in the Dayton region and face Ohio State (22-9) in the first round at 1:30 Saturday in Columbus, Ohio. The Hatters (20-12), in their second appearance as Atlantic Sun champ, drew the 16th seed in the same region and go on the road to face eight-time national champion Tennessee (31-2) at 1:30 Saturday in Knoxville, Tenn.
The Volunteers were one of the four No. 1 seeds. The others were two-time defending champion Connecticut in the Philadelphia region, Baylor in the Dallas region and Stanford in the Spokane, Wash., region.
"I think if it's a four-horse race, there are some dark horses," said Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer, whose team lost to UConn in last season's national title game. "I don't think there is a clear-cut favorite. Last year they (UConn) were a clear-cut favorite. We're not a clear-cut favorite. Tennessee's not a clear-cut favorite; Baylor's not; and UConn's not."
For UConn's Geno Auriemma to match Tennessee coach Pat Summitt with an eighth title, he might have to go through her Vols. The Huskies earned the No. 1 overall seed and if both win their regions, UConn and Tennessee would meet in a national semifinal at Indianapolis.
And the Huskies (32-1) face a familiar face at home in the first round: former Connecticut star Jen Rizzotti, now the coach at Hartford. Her Hawks were the surprise winner of the America East tournament.
UConn is one of a record nine Big East teams in the field.
Tennessee continued as the only team to make the field every year that there has been an NCAA women's Tournament; this year makes 30.
WNIT: Florida earned an at-large bid and Florida Gulf Coast also got an invitation in the second-tier tournament. Both teams open Friday; UF (18-14) hosts Maryland-Baltimore County in the first round and FGCU (27-3) starts at home against Drexel.
AP POLL: UConn finished No. 1 in the women's poll for the fourth straight season. The Huskies received 37 of 39 first-place votes in the AP top 25, with Stanford drawing the other two. UConn has topped the final poll 10 times, all in the past 17 seasons.
COACHING MOVES: Tia Jackson announced her resignation at Washington after going 45-75 in four seasons. … Beth Dunkenberger resigned at Virginia Tech with a 110-104 record in seven seasons.