WBB Seed Bubble Watch – Pre-B1G Tournament edition
The injury to Laila Phelia continued to hamper the women hoopers last week. Leigha Brown had been able to (mostly) prop them up in her absence, but Brown’s own 2-game absence due to an “internal issue” cost them, bigly. They lost their season finale at Wisconsin on Sunday, putting their chances of hosting home games for the NCAA tournament on life support.
On life support, but not dead yet. KBA has indicated that Brown will be back for the B1G tournament, and that Phelia is agitating to get cleared to play, too. Even without Phelia, they figure to beat Penn State in their game today. Ohio State looms in the quarters on Friday, and that game is the key – win it, and they get to the 4-line, lose and they’re probably stuck on five and going on the road for the dance. Somebody find Laila Phelia and poke her with a magic wand or something.
Yesterday’s bracketology had them as a five-seed. The lines are as follows:
- 4-seeds: Colorado, Texas, Villanova, North Carolina
- 5-seeds: Oklahoma, Michigan, UCLA, Tennessee
- 6-seeds: Arizona, Iowa St, Louisville, Florida St
Most of these teams (Big 12 excluded) are in their conference tournaments. A couple of pertinent results from last night:
- UCLA beat Arizona State in overtime. (boo)
- Oklahoma beat Kansas State in overtime. (boo again. seriously? Two overtime games go against us?)
- Kansas beat Iowa State (yay)
So, not too bad. Coulda been great, but not quite.
Today’s games of interest, rooting interest in bold:
- UCLA vs Arizona (probably doesn’t matter either way)
- Florida St vs Wake Forest
- Clemson vs North Carolina (former Michigan point guard Danielle Rauch is a grad assistant at Clemson, here's hoping she somehow works some mojo in that one)
- Oregon St vs Colorado
Virginia Tech and Louisville begin ACC tournament play tomorrow.
The women play at about 3 today, right after Nebraska smokes Sparty in the 12:30 game. Try not to get annoyed with Megan McKeown on the broadcast, she wants to be a star so much.
Somebody find Laila Phelia and poke her with a magic wand or something.
"Paging Mr. Miyagi. Mr Miyagi, please report to the women's locker room, stat."
now i'm intrigued about why matty blue has a beef with Meghan McKeown.
honestly? i don't know why, either!
beth mowins syndrome?
i actually think beth mowins is fine, although she sometimes lapses into "this is how a sportscaster sounds" voice. i like debbie antonelli a lot.
i'm honestly not sure what it is about mckeown - she's clearly smart, knows the game (her dad is the northwestern coach), and has a good sense of humor. i think it's that's she just seems like such a try-hard sometimes. not as much as christy winters-scott, but it's there.
It super sucks that Phelia is out -- I thought this team had enough juice to make some noise in the tourney. I mean, they still could if they get the right matchup, but you know what I mean.
Can we also talk about how good a name "Laila Phelia" is? One of the best names I've ever heard.
LAILA IS BACK.
this resets the ceiling, big time.
we're gonna be a Tough Out.
Too many turnovers but came out with the win.
That's always the case with KBA teams. Their krypton has been teams that can force lots of turnovers (unfortunately few better than tomorrow's opponent).
Phelia held up well and played almost all of the second half - I don't think they would have won without her, but that big knee-brace suggests that the extra rigor of a tournament is a big ask. Brown was back. Still no word on the "internal issue" - she missed a game early this season for the same reason.
Based on today's narrow escape and the poor efforts against OSU so far this season, I think it's pretty simple - they get a seed if they win tomorrow and they don't otherwise.