The entire injury discussion is funny and brings back memories of Stanford and 1998. From the ESPN story:
Teams are supposed to inform the committee what the realistic prognosis is for an injured player ahead of Selection Sunday. Sometimes it doesn't happen, leaving the committee members to speculate or not consider the injury at all.
Wes Moore was very straightforward about Johnson saying she wouldn't play in the ACC tournament, hoping that the additional rest would allow her to play in the NCAA tournament. Niele Ivey, on the other hand, was much less . . . clear on Miles's availability even for the ACC Tournament. Ivey couldn't even say the words "Olivia Miles won't be available for the ACC tournament." She instead said: "She's day to day. She's still getting looked at, and so we won't really know until probably after the weekend." I suspect the Committee will get the same answer from Niele leading up to the Selection show.
Some will recall the situation in 1998 with Stanford and Vanessa Nygaard's knee injury in the PAC-10 conference final against Oregon State. While Nygaard's knee was undergoing testing (MRI), the committee tried to get in touch with Tara.
Jean Lenti Ponsetto, NCAA selection committee chair from DePaul: "By Saturday afternoon, when Nygaard was injured, the bracket was probably almost done. I know we tried to get ahold of Tara after we had heard that there was an injury at Stanford. The rule is that the committee is notified as soon as an injury happens, but that wasn't probably easy at that point because we were holed up. I remember the NCAA staff had tried to reach Tara, and she was out walking her dog. We had two brackets, one with them as a No. 1 seed and another with them as a No. 2. But the bottom line is, the committee went with the info we had. And we left them at a No. 1. I remember asking Tara later, 'Were you really out walking your dog while we were trying to reach you?' She said, 'I guess.'"
Stanford then lost to #16 seed Harvard.