This should be an interesting tournament as up to four BE teams have a chance of making the Big Dance - Creighton, DePaul, UConn, and Villanova. With 68 slots allocated, the odds are improved, although the powers that be will likely select teams with losing conference records from the Power Five over good teams in lesser conferences. According to Charlie Creme, the Big East will have only two - UConn and Creighton. I hope that DePaul and Villanova earn berths, because aside from Paige Bueckers, they feature the two best players in the conference and the teams deserve to get some national exposure. Am speaking of course of Aneesah Morrow and Maddy Siegrist. One of them will no doubt garnish POY honors and Morrow is a lock on FOY.
Usually UConn dominates the awards, but not this season. Probably Christyn Williams will be a first team selection with Olivia Nelson-Ododa as perhaps second team and defensive POY. In addition, Caroline Ducharme and Azzi Fudd will probably be on the all-freshman team. Denise Dillon is probably a lock for coach of the year. It will be interesting to see who is on the all-conference teams.
The Big East is basically a conference made up of Catholic schools that do not have the resources of universities in the Power Five conference. The male teams in the conference have been able to effectively compete with these larger schools and up to seven teams will go to the tournament. These schools’ dedication to women’s basketball appears to be significantly less and the conference has several weak sisters whose male counterparts have a history of being successful. I’m thinking of Butler, Xavier, Georgetown, and Providence in particular. The fact that UConn has returned to its basketball roots should help raise the level of the women’s programs.
Although we regret that UConn’s conference winning streak has ended, the result was good for the conference by showing that the team is not automatically a lock to win all scheduled games.
For the Huskies, assuming no one gets hurt and the team roars through the conference tournament, the big questions are - will UConn be a 2 or 3 seed and will it be in the Bridgeport region?
Usually UConn dominates the awards, but not this season. Probably Christyn Williams will be a first team selection with Olivia Nelson-Ododa as perhaps second team and defensive POY. In addition, Caroline Ducharme and Azzi Fudd will probably be on the all-freshman team. Denise Dillon is probably a lock for coach of the year. It will be interesting to see who is on the all-conference teams.
The Big East is basically a conference made up of Catholic schools that do not have the resources of universities in the Power Five conference. The male teams in the conference have been able to effectively compete with these larger schools and up to seven teams will go to the tournament. These schools’ dedication to women’s basketball appears to be significantly less and the conference has several weak sisters whose male counterparts have a history of being successful. I’m thinking of Butler, Xavier, Georgetown, and Providence in particular. The fact that UConn has returned to its basketball roots should help raise the level of the women’s programs.
Although we regret that UConn’s conference winning streak has ended, the result was good for the conference by showing that the team is not automatically a lock to win all scheduled games.
For the Huskies, assuming no one gets hurt and the team roars through the conference tournament, the big questions are - will UConn be a 2 or 3 seed and will it be in the Bridgeport region?
