As the number of commercial breaks increased and the number of
brackets decreased during the NCAA Selection Show, the excitement
and hopes of the UCLA women’s basketball team sank
considerably.
Hoping to grab an at-large bid to the Big Dance, the Bruins
(18-11, 12-6 Pac-10) were ready for celebration. But the invitation
never came.
With only the West bracket remaining, the only Pac-10 conference
team to be selected was Arizona (22-8, 13-5 Pac-10), placed into
the sixth seed in the East bracket.
“We were very disappointed,” head coach Kathy
Olivier said. “I knew when it came down to the last bracket
we were in trouble, because I knew they were still going to have
two Pac-10 teams to seed, and I didn’t think they’d put
a third team from the conference in that bracket.”
Stanford (26-4, 15-3 Pac-10), this year’s Pac-10 champion,
was guaranteed a bid and was seeded third in the West behind LSU
(27-3) and Texas (25-5), Southeastern Conference and Big 12
Conference champions, respectively. The second-place team in the
Pac-10, Washington (22-7, 13-5 Pac-10), was given a bid as expected
and is seeded ninth in the West bracket.
The Bruins, however, were not so lucky.
“I know we were a bubble team,” Olivier said.
“I just thought we had a good shot.”
While the Bruins posted a 12-6 conference record and finished
the season strong, it was not enough to overcome flaws in their
resume.
Namely, UCLA’s pre-season was merely mediocre. Losses to
Georgia and Pepperdine, names the Bruins heard during the selection
show, certainly didn’t help. Nor did losing to Hawai’i
and Baylor, which led UCLA to a 6-5 non-conference record.
“I guess you could look at certain losses and play
differently, but it’s so hard to look back and play the
“˜what if’ game,” senior guard Michelle Greco
said. “We felt like we deserved to be in the tournament.
Toward the end of the season, we were playing great. We knew we
could play with anybody in the country, so to not get in,
it’s difficult.”
The Bruins did improve significantly throughout the season.
Coming off the pre-season, UCLA started with a six-game winning
streak and after a weekend that included a two-point loss to
Stanford and a costly defeat at the hands of Cal, the Bruins went
on to win six of their remaining nine conference games.
After winning its Pac-10 tournament quarterfinal game against
Oregon, UCLA’s victory count was at 18. That was enough to
make Olivier feel comfortable with moving on to March Madness.
In comparison to other conferences, the fact that the Bruins
weren’t chosen is surprising. The University of Virginia is
in the Mideast region, even with 13 season losses. Likewise, Miami,
which finished seventh in the Big East conference, will play next
weekend as well.
The division among conferences does appear a bit lopsided: the
Big East and SEC conferences are sending seven teams each, the Big
10 has six teams seeded, and the Big 12 and Conference USA are
sending five. The Pac-10, however, will only have three teams
representing the conference.
“The Pac-10 is held to a higher standard,” Olivier
said. “In some ways, I think it’s a compliment, but I
think they’re missing out.”
The Bruins are certainly missing out. With a squad full of
promising freshmen and a group of experienced seniors, this year
would have been ideal to play in the NCAA Tournament.
The only remaining post-season option for UCLA would be the
National Invitation Tournament. But the Bruins will not play in the
NIT ““ mostly because no one believed it was going to be an
option.
“We were pretty much thinking we were going to be in the
NCAAs. The NIT wasn’t an option for us,” Olivier said.
“We’ll be focusing on next year now which’ll be
sad because it’s on (the seniors) expense.”
Sports Information Director Steve Rourke also indicated that
financial and academic reasons factored into the decision.
Five seniors will be leaving the team after this season. With an
elite freshmen recruiting class slated to join the Bruin squad in
the fall, at this point, the team has no choice but to look
forward.
“I just think of this as more incentive to work harder in
the spring and harder in the summer,” Olivier continued.
“And next year, don’t let it be in the hands of the
committee.”