The UCLA women’s basketball team received a No. 5 seed in
the NCAA Tournament and is heading to West Lafayette, Ind. to play
12th-seeded Bowling Green in the Cleveland Regional.
The seeding is the latest in a series of events that has seen
the No. 21-nationally ranked Bruins go from strictly a bubble team
to a high seed that will be predicted to win their first NCAA
Tournament game since 1999.
UCLA (20-10) has won its last five games, including the Pac-10
Tournament on March 7 against heavily favored Stanford in the final
game, and has been rewarded for finishing the season with a
meteoric rise.
The Bruins could approach this year’s selection process
with more ease, knowing that their place in the 64-team tournament
was secure because they had earned the Pac-10’s automatic
bid.
And it was a much sweeter experience knowing that it was a just
a matter of the time and the place.
"I’ve been rejected from the tournament two out of my four
years here," senior point guard Nikki Blue said. "Whether we were a
five seed or a 13 seed or an 80 seed … I am just glad to be
in."
UCLA coach Kathy Olivier was hoping to see her team seeded as
high as a fourth and feared as low as eighth, but now the attention
turns to Bowling Green (28-2), a team that is much more dangerous
that its No. 12 seed would indicate.
The No. 23-ranked Falcons dominated the Mid-American Conference
in the regular season, the first team in eight years to go
undefeated in conference play. Bowling Green beat Kent State to
claim its second-straight MAC Tournament title.
"You start scrambling and try to get all the information you
possibly can and get your film going," Olivier said. "This is where
everything kicks."
The Pac-10 will be well represented in the tournament, with No.
13 Stanford, No. 15 Arizona State, USC, Washington and California
as at-large bids accompanying UCLA. Washington, who lost its last
three games leading up to Selection Monday, and Cal, who lost to
UCLA in the opening round of the Pac-10 Tournament, were both
considered bubble teams and surprisingly were selected for the NCAA
Tournament.
"That got the biggest reaction," Olivier said. "Is Cal
deserving? Yeah. It shows that the Pac-10 is a very competitive
conference and last year’s success in the first round might
have helped (get 6 teams in the tournament)."
UCLA is playing in what is arguably the most daunting bracket,
which features North Carolina as the top seed, a surprisingly
low-seeded Tennessee as the second seed, and Rutgers as the third
seed. The Bruins also face a potentially troubling second round
game against fourth-seeded Purdue, if the two teams were to
advance. Playing in West Lafayette, the game would essentially be a
home game for the Boilermakers.
But before any speculation can begin about how far the Bruins
can advance, they have to familiarize themselves with their first
round opponent.
"You start jumping ahead and looking at everyone in your
brackets, but the reality it that as much as you do that you have
to all of a sudden say “˜enough’, and go back to Bowling
Green," Olivier said.