Not long after the sun goes down, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team’s wait will be over and the Lady Mocs will know what lies ahead.
By winning their third straight Southern Conference tournament last Monday, the Lady Mocs assured themselves of a spot in the NCAA tournament, and they will find out their opponent and destination between 7 and 8 tonight when the women’s bracket is revealed on ESPN.
“I’ll take a deep breath when it’s done,” Brooke Hand said Saturday prior to UTC’s first practice since beating Western Carolina a week ago for the SoCon title and the automatic bid. “This sitting here and waiting drives me nuts.”
This is the third consecutive year UTC’s seniors have been through this, but the waiting isn’t any easier, Kristen Spann said.
“It’s exciting, yet nerve-wracking,” Spann said.
Laura Hall is a bit more easygoing on the matter.
“It’s fun to see what seed you are, who you’re playing and where you’re playing,” Hall said. “Being around everybody, knowing that eventually you’re name’s going to pop up there, that is a lot of fun.”
The team will gather at Big River Grille & Brewing Works for the selection show, during which UTC (29-3), which has the longest winning streak in the nation at 24 games, will learn four things: Its seed, its first-round opponent, its destination and whether it will play on Saturday or Sunday.
As eager and anxious as some of the Lady Mocs are about learning their fate, they all concede that at least they know they’re in the field. For all the bubble teams, tonight isn’t so much about where they’re going, but if.
“I don’t know that I would be able to successfully eat my meal if that were on the line,” Amy Mohr said.
ESPN.com women’s basketball analyst and “bracketologist” Charlie Creme said last week that if UTC won the SoCon tournament he would expect the Lady Mocs to be an 11 or 12 seed. He said it was unlikely they would go any higher or lower than that and in his most recent bracket projection, posted Sunday afternoon, Creme had UTC slated as a 12 seed, playing No. 5 seed Notre Dame(23-8), which is ranked No. 17, in Albuquerque on Saturday.
“I thought, maybe, we might be worthy of a 10 seed based on our record,” Lady Mocs coach Wes Moore said. “In some ways its similar to the year we beat Rutgers (2004), we went in with a long winning streak and they say (the selection committee) looks at who’s hot and that sort of thing, so you’d think maybe they’d consider it. At the same time, I understand we’ve been a 12 (seed) several times.
“Really, it’s not that critical — it all depends on what kind of matchup you get. As a (10) seed, you may get a 7 seed that you don’t match up well with so you might feel more comfortable as a 12 seed with a better matchup against a 5 seed.”
The Lady Mocs have wins over three teams that have earned automatic bids — East Tennessee State, Murray State and Miami (Ohio) — and two of their losses came against Tennessee, which is sure to be a No. 1 seed, and Louisville, whom Creme projects as a No. 4 seed.
John Frierson is in his fifth year at the Times Free Press and fifth year covering University of Tennessee at Chattanooga athletics. The bulk of his time is spent covering Mocs football, but he also writes about women’s basketball and the big-picture issues and news involving the athletic department. A native of Athens, Ga., John grew up a few hundred yards from the University of Georgia campus. Instead of becoming a Bulldog he attended Ole ...
