ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 10, 1997 TAG: 9703120028
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
After two consecutive years of identical semifinalists, a new alignment ensures there will be new teams in this year's Final Four.
Connecticut, Old Dominion, Stanford and North Carolina were given the No.1 seeds Sunday in the women's NCAA Tournament, assured of having a different Final Four for the first time since 1994.
Top-ranked Connecticut (30-0) is the No.1 seed in the Midwest Regional, No.2 Old Dominion (29-1) was given the top seed in the Mideast, third-ranked Stanford (30-1) is No.1 in the West and fourth-ranked North Carolina (27-2) was made the top seed in the East.
This is the fourth consecutive year Connecticut has been a No.1 seed and the first time in 10 years Tennessee has not. The Vols are seeded third in the Midwest.
North Carolina became the third school awarded a No.1 seed after missing the previous year's tournament. That happened with Ohio State in 1993 and Purdue in 1994.
The brackets are arranged so there will be at least two new faces in the Final Four, which has had Connecticut, Tennessee, Stanford and Georgia for the past two years.
Defending champion Tennessee and 1995 winner Connecticut are in the Midwest Regional. Stanford and Georgia are in the West.
A mild surprise was Colorado, not in the Top 25 but the No.2 seed in the Midwest. The Buffaloes (21-8) played a tough non-conference schedule and finished strong in league play, winning their final six games and claiming the title in the first Big 12 Conference tournament.
The Southeastern Conference repeated its feat of the past two years by sending seven teams to the tournament: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Tennessee and Vanderbilt. Left out was Arkansas, 18-10 overall but 5-7 in the league. Arkansas failed to get in last season with a 20-11 record.
The ACC and Big 12 have six teams each, while five made it from the Big Ten, Conference USA and Pac-10.
In all of those leagues, a team thought to be on the bubble got in - Maryland from the ACC, Iowa State from the Big 12, Northwestern from the Big Ten, DePaul from Conference USA and Washington from the Pac-10. Iowa State (17-11) made the tournament for the first time.
With one exception, the top four seeds in each region will be the host schools for the first two rounds of regional play, either Friday and March 16 or Saturday and March 17.
The exception was Tulane, the No.4 seed in the East. Tulane's arena is smaller than the required 4,000 seats, so fifth-seeded George Washington, the Atlantic 10 tournament runner-up, was given the subregional instead.
Joining Colorado as No.2 seeds are Georgia in the West, Louisiana Tech in the Mideast and Alabama in the East. The No.3 seeds in addition to Tennessee are Kansas in the West, Florida in the Mideast and Texas in the East.
Along with Tulane, the No.4 seeds are Illinois (Midwest), Virginia (West) and LSU (Mideast).
The subregional winners March 16 and March 18 advance to regionals March 22 and 24 - the East in Columbia, S.C.; the Mideast in West Lafayette, Ind.; the Midwest in Iowa City; and the West in Missoula, Mont.
In the semifinals at the Final Four, the Midwest champion plays the East winner and the West winner goes against the Mideast champion.
Iowa State is one of nine teams that will play in the NCAA Tournament for the first time. The others are Arizona, Detroit, Eastern Kentucky, Lehigh, Liberty, Marshall, Southwest Texas State and Troy State.
Arizona and Iowa State were the only at-large qualifiers among the first-timers. The others all won their conference tournaments.
Tennessee and Louisiana Tech will make their 16th NCAA appearances - the only schools to play in the tournament each year since it began.
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