Women's basketball waits out seeding decision

Barring any surprises, the Terrapin women's basketball team will find itself in a familiar position when the NCAA tournament bracket is announced Monday night.

Conventional wisdom - along with most experts - has the Terps penciled in as a No. 2 seed, the same as they have been for the previous two tournaments. Despite a 30-3 record, a loss in the semifinals of the ACC tournament left the Terps' resumé short of a top seed.

ESPN.com contributor Beth Mowins still gives the Terps respect.

"I would have Maryland listed as the best of the No. 2 seeds, so I'd want them matched with the lowest No. 1," Mowins said. "That would be Stanford."

The Division I Women's Basketball Committee ranks the four top seeds, then places them in the region that is geographically closest to each respective campus. The top-ranked No. 1 seed gets first priority to play closest to home in the regional semifinals and finals.

Connecticut, North Carolina and Tennessee are the probable top seeds expected to be sent to the Greensboro, New Orleans and Oklahoma City regions, respectively, leaving the Pac-10 champion Stanford Cardinal to play in Spokane.

Judy Southard, chairwoman of the committee, said the four teams on each subsequent seed line are supposed to be ranked and sent to regions via similar geographic stipulations, but allowances are made to prevent one region from having too many top teams.

So while the Terps might be considered the best No. 2 - which would geographically send them to Greensboro - the committee could easily choose to send them to Spokane to avoid having both the Huskies and the Terps in the same region.

"We're going to do the best we can to balance the bracket as best as possible," Southard said.

Should the committee decide the Terps aren't the best No. 2, all bets are off.

Mowins said the Terps would have had a very good chance to be a No. 1 seed had they beaten Duke in the ACC semifinals on Saturday, but she said they probably still would have ended up projecting to Spokane as the lowest No. 1 unless they'd beaten UNC in the ACC final.

The Terps' loss Saturday, along with conference-tournament losses by top-seed contenders Rutgers and LSU, opened the door for the Cardinal to most likely grab the last No. 1 seed.

"If you're going to send somebody out West anyway, you might as well send Stanford as the No. 1 seed and somebody else as the No. 2," Mowins said.

For their part, the Terps say they aren't concerned about the seeding as much as they are about the opponents they might face.

The Terps won the national championship as a No. 2 seed in 2006 and were upset in the second round as a No. 2 last year. The Terps avoided facing a No. 1 seed in the regional final in 2006, instead playing No. 5-seed Utah.

"The biggest thing is just you want to have a great bracket where you feel like you can have a lot of success," coach Brenda Frese said. "I feel like [that] can happen anywhere, and we'll see where we'll go."

Mowins said that, while some mid-level teams with good speed and pressure defense could once again give the Terps trouble in the early rounds, she would be surprised if the Terps were beaten again at least before the regional final.

"I was surprised last year, and I'd be surprised again this year," Mowins said. "They're definitely going to be a contender for the Final Four."

The Terps are scheduled to play the first two rounds of the tournament at Comcast Center on March 23 and 25, which could turn out to be the beginning of a globetrotting exposition from College Park to Spokane to Tampa for the Final Four on three consecutive weekends.

If they reach that last destination, the Terps probably won't be worried about the extra mileage.

"I'm not really thinking about where we're going to go," senior forward Laura Harper said. "I just want to play basketball games."

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