Pac-12 WBB: Seven NCAA bids, including a No. 1 seed, are the reward for a stellar season, but Oregon shut out

story by Jeff Metcalfe

Pac-12 administrators and women’s basketball coaches lobbied hard for Oregon to make the NCAA Tournament but ultimately couldn’t convince the NCAA selection committee.

Despite a lofty NET ranking (No. 19), Oregon was not among the 36 at-large selections to the NCAA field announced Sunday. So the Pac-12 goes into March Madness with a record-tying seven qualifiers rather than breaking the 2017 mark with eight.

Regular season co-champion Stanford snagged the final No. 1 seed over Iowa and Connecticut despite losing two of its last three games. Stanford and Iowa could meet with a Final Four berth on the line.

Selection committee chair Lisa Peterson said in an ESPN interview that Stanford’s 20 wins against top-100 opponents was a deciding factor in the No. 1 seed debate. The Cardinal is 13-5 in Quadrant 1 games, while UConn is 15-4 and Iowa 11-6. (Peterson is the Pac-12’s senior associate commissioner for sports management.)

The other No. 1 seeds are undefeated South Carolina, the defending champions, Indiana and Virginia Tech.

Stanford, Utah (a No. 2 seed) and UCLA (No. 4) are hosting first- and second-round games. A home sub-regional is an advantage in the women’s game toward reaching the Sweet Sixteen but not a guarantee — as evidenced last year when Arizona lost in the second round to North Carolina.

Although Stanford made a second consecutive Final Four in 2022, no other Pac-12 team advanced to a regional. That’s something this year’s qualifiers expect to improve upon in support of the Pac-12’s season-long contention of being the deepest conference in the country. And that strength is part of the case for Oregon (17-14) to be in the NCAAs despite a 3-14 record against Quad 1 opponents.

“We have eight very deserving teams who have proved themselves throughout the year,” said Rhonda Lundin Bennett, the Pac-12 associate commissioner and former NCAA women’s basketball committee chair.

“If anything, what’s happened in this conference tournament shows you how meaningful and how quality those wins our teams have against teams within our conference are.”

Washington State won the Pac-12 Tournament as a No. 7 seed after the top four seeds lost before the final. Now, the Cougars, as the Pac-12’s automatic qualifier, are a No. 5 seed and making their third consecutive postseason appearance.

Other NCAA qualifiers from the Pac-12 are No. 6 seed Colorado, No. 7 Arizona and No. 8 USC.

Oregon is missing out on the NCAAs for the first time since 2016 (not including COVID-cancelled tournament in 2020) but will play in the 64-team WNIT along with Washington. In all, nine Pac-12 teams will be in the postseason.

“My philosophy has always been if somebody wants us to play, we’re going to play,” Oregon coach Kelly Graves said. “I think the team would rather play. I’ve never understood why people turn things down like that on some kind of principle.

“It’s not like they’re just going to go home and eat Cheetos and drink Pepsi or beer. They’re going to be in the gym working out. I think most kids would rather be practicing and getting in the gym and working on their games a little bit.”

The Ducks won the WNIT in 2002 and reached the semifinals in 2016 before beginning their five-year NCAA run. Washington is making its seventh WNIT appearance and first since 2014.

Pac-12 perfection in the first round?
Here are the Pac-12’s first-round pairings:

Friday

No. 7 Arizona vs. No. 10 West Virginia
No. 1 Stanford vs. No. 16 Southern/Sacred Heart
No. 2 Utah vs. No. 15 Gardner-Webb
No. 8 USC vs. No. 9 South Dakota State

Saturday

No. 4 UCLA vs. No. 13 Sacramento State
No. 6 Colorado vs. No. 11 Middle Tennessee
No. 5 Washington State vs. No. 12 Florida Gulf Coast

If the Pac-12 goes 7-0 in the first round – not likely but far from impossible – the second-round games (based on higher seeds winning) would pair Stanford vs. No. 8 Mississippi, Utah vs. No. 7 North Carolina State, UCLA vs. No. 5 Oklahoma, Washington State vs. No. 4 Villanova (host), Colorado vs. No. 3 Duke (host), Arizona vs. No. 2 Maryland (host) and USC vs. No. 1 Virginia Tech (host).

Where next for the Pac-12 Tournament?
The Pac-12 women’s tournament has been held in Las Vegas since 2019. Before that, it was in Seattle (2013-18), Los Angeles at USC (2009-12), San Jose (2003-08) and Eugene, Ore. (2002).

Total attendance peaks were 36,777 in 2017 and 34,138 in 2020 (right before the COVID shutdown). The most recent tournament drew 25,176 for 11 games in the final year of the Pac-12 contract to play in Vegas.

Las Vegas is under consideration to retain the event, but it has competition. And there is a line of thought that making a move to a different neutral site is a good idea.

“We’ve had an amazing run here,” said Teresa Gould, Pac-12 deputy commissioner. “Our athletes have a great experience, our coaches love being here. But we owe it to ourselves with the growth of our product to continue to discuss if this is the best place long term.

“We haven’t made any announcements beyond 2023. We’re hopeful that will happen within the next month. We’ll see what the interest is in our footprint and talk to our athletic directors and senior women’s administrators and coaches and see what’s best and go from there.”

Phoenix is hosting the NCAA Women’s Final Four in 2026; Portland has it in 2030. Both could be candidates for the Pac-12 tournament along with Spokane, Seattle and perhaps others.

“We could look at any neutral site in our (West Coast) footprint,” Gould said. “We’re not having discussions about going to a campus site.

“However, we have really good data from a ticket sales perspective of what communities are purchasing the most tickets and traveling to come to these events. We have a pretty good handle on our women’s basketball community, so we owe it to ourselves to say in what geographical area and footprint could we have packed stands for athletes to play in front of.

“We need to be open-minded to look at all those options.”

Gould said of the Vegas tournament run that “our fans have known for a long time what to expect. They could plan for the trip. There is some benefit from an NCAA perspective of partnering with neutral site venues in our footprint in terms of positioning them for NCAA hosting. That’s what we kind of have to balance.”

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