March 16, 2005

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Palo Alto Online

Stanford women deal with a bad seed

by Nathan Kurz

Tara VanDerveer has been down this road before. In 1990, the year Stanford won its first national championship, the bigwigs at the NCAA placed VanDerveer's Cardinal in a regional with a handful of ranked teams. Safe to say, as VanDerveer recalls it, she didn't respond well to her hard luck.

"I just remember going home and having a breakdown and getting upset," she said. "Since then, I've just let go and said there's no sense in overanalyzing this thing. We just have to go out and play. Honestly, I stopped trying to figure out the committee and seeds."

That might be tempting to do this year, though. Stanford (29-2) became the first team in 21 years to not receive a top seed in the women's tournament after finishing the regular season atop the Associated Press poll. Texas ended the season No. 1 in 1984, but was given a second seed in the Mideast region.

In 2005, the Cardinal was awarded the second seed in the Kansas City Regional and will play Saturday in Fresno against West Coast Conference Champion and 15th seed Santa Clara at approximately 7:30 p.m. (ESPN)

A team that lost only twice in the regular season, that blazed through its conference, winning by an average margin of almost 25 points per game, understandably expected to be rewarded by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee with a No. 1 seed and a spot in Tempe-the regional closest to Stanford's geographical home.

Instead, the Cardinal was shown a whole new level of disrespect from the committee-which a year ago bestowed upon then-No. 10 Stanford a six seed-in the form of an exceedingly difficult path to the Final Four in Indianapolis. If the seeds hold, Stanford would have to play three-time defending champion and third-seeded UConn in the Sweet Sixteen in Kansas City and then No. 1 seed Michigan State, which enters the tournament riding a 12-game winning streak. What's more, 10 of the Spartans' 28 wins have come against ranked teams, including road wins at Connecticut, Minnesota and Notre Dame.

Tennessee, North Carolina and Louisiana State were awarded the other three top seeds.

In a conference call with reporters, members of the selection committee defended their bracket adamantly. Chairwoman Lynn Parkes, in an earlier interview on ESPN, noted that the Lady Tigers and Lady Volunteers "separated themselves" from the rest of the pack, and the rest of the potentials were all fairly similar in resume and makeup.

Ultimately, the committee could offer no better rationale for Stanford's seeding than to point to the Cardinal's loss to Oregon, a team ranked outside the RPI top 50.

That logic seems problematic, though, because the Lady Ducks received an at-large berth and a No. 10 seed in the tournament. By implication, the committee also downplayed Stanford's dominance in what they perceived to be a weak league-but the Pac-10 placed five teams in this very tournament, the conference's most since 1998.

"I thought was had a good shot at a No. 1 seed," senior guard Kelley Suminski said. "I believe we are one of the top teams in the nation."

The guess here is Stanford's poor strength-of-schedule ranking (83rd) ultimately doomed it in the eyes of the committee members.

And while this debate probably will rage on until Stanford plays Saturday, the fact is that the Cardinal must put this behind them. A year ago, Suminski and company channeled their collective pre-tournament anger into serious motivation, ultimately reaching the Elite Eight before falling to Tennessee in the final moments.

They'll have to do the same if the Cardinal is to reach its first Final Four in eight years.

"I think our team is hungry," senior Susan King-Borchardt said. "I think we played well last year in the same situation. We're going to turn this into a good thing for ourselves."

Saturday's opening game with the neighboring Broncos will have a bit of intrigue. Pinewood grads Sebnem (senior Stanford guard) and Yasmin (sophomore Santa Clara guard) Kimyacioglu will face off against each other for the first time. "I thought that we might both end up in Fresno, but I didn't expect to be playing her," Sebnem said. "I'm sure my parents are picking up their jaws right now. They weren't expecting to be seeing us at the same time. (But at least) they won't have to plan out their wardrobe since we've got similar (uniform) colors."

Similarly, junior center Brooke Smith will play against her best friend, Broncos sophomore guard Lauren Michalski. The two were teammates on the Marin Catholic girls' team while in high school.

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