The most important questions going through the 2022 NCAA ladies’s basketball match choice committee

Baylor coach Nicki Collen stated there’s motive sufficient for the Bears to go full-throttle vs. Texas in Sunday’s Huge 12 championship sport (2 p.m. ET, ESPN2/ESPN App): A match title is on the road. Whereas it might the 12th for Baylor, it might be the primary for Collen, in her inaugural season with the Bears.

“[Sunday] is about reducing down one other web,” Collen stated Saturday after Baylor’s 91-76 semifinal victory over Oklahoma at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas Metropolis, Missouri. “I do not know if I imagine any of it, however we might probably be taking part in for a No. 1 seed within the NCAA match, too.”

In response to ESPN Bracketologist Charlie Creme, that is precisely what Baylor can be doing. After the Bears avenged two regular-season losses to the Sooners, Creme moved Baylor into the fourth and last No. 1 seed, changing Louisville on the highest line. Will Baylor really find yourself there? That is one of many questions that can be answered within the NCAA ladies’s choice present, which begins at Eight p.m. ET on ESPN.

The ladies have had their choice present on Mondays since 2006, however moved again to Sunday this season to account for the match increasing to 68 groups with the First 4. And whereas sure issues have been locked in for fairly some time with no change — comparable to South Carolina, NC State and defending nationwide champion Stanford as No. 1 seeds — different issues have fluctuated. Louisville was the fourth No. 1 seed within the choice committee’s final reveal on Feb. 28, however the Cardinals’ ACC quarterfinal loss to Miami left the door open for Baylor.

The Bears seem like charging via that; they’re on a 12-game profitable streak and began Huge 12 match play Friday with a 23-Zero first quarter in opposition to Oklahoma State.

A loss to Texas would change issues, however Baylor is 27-1 vs. Texas since 2011; the Longhorns’ lone win in that stretch was in 2017. Additionally, Texas’ solely Huge 12 match title got here in 2003.

As we wait to see if the Longhorns can finish that drought and rob Baylor of a No. 1 seed, what are a number of the different massive questions we’re pondering heading into Choice Sunday?

How will issues shake out for the remainder of the Huge 12?

Per Creme, the Huge 12 is projected to get six of its 10 groups into the sphere, together with Kansas, which hasn’t performed within the NCAA match since 2013. However 4 groups are projected among the many top-16 seeds.

Semifinal losses Saturday aren’t more likely to affect seeding for projected 2-seed Iowa State and projected 4-seed Oklahoma. The Sooners have misplaced twice because the final reveal, although, so their top-16 standing may be slightly extra tenuous. However contemplating their general physique of labor contains two wins over Baylor, they’ve a fairly sturdy case to host the early rounds.

As for Texas, the Longhorns — who like Baylor reached the Elite Eight final season — appear to have locked up a No. 2 seed by making the Huge 12 last.

Will UConn be positioned within the Bridgeport Area?

It appears that approach, because the Huskies moved right into a No. 2 seed after profitable the Huge East match final Monday. Girls’s basketball followers and NC State followers have already voiced displeasure that the Wolfpack — the area’s projected prime seed — may need to play UConn within the Huskies’ yard. Good reward for being a No. 1 seed, proper?

The bracket seems to be shaping up with the Huskies getting this benefit but once more; they have been in Bridgeport or Albany, New York, from 2015 to 2019. With Paige Bueckers again on court docket after being sidelined a lot of the season with a knee damage, the timing appears to be good for UConn.

How a lot will sturdy finishes affect groups comparable to Iowa and Kentucky?

When the Hawkeyes fell to Maryland on Feb. 14, their fourth loss in as many tries in opposition to a ranked group, they have been 16-7 and appeared out of the combo to host the early rounds. They’ve received seven in a row since, incomes them the Huge Ten match title and elevating them into the highest 16. Creme now tasks them as a No. Three seed.

Kentucky was in worse form on Feb. 14; at 10-11 general and 3-Eight within the SEC, the Wildcats weren’t even within the NCAA match discipline. However they’d simply defeated Alabama on Feb. 13 to start out what would become a 10-game profitable streak that introduced Kentucky its first SEC match title since 1982.

The Wildcats completed their convention match wanting like a top-16 seed, however their closing run wasn’t fairly sufficient to raise them that prime. Creme has Kentucky as certainly one of three SEC groups as a No. 7 seed, together with Georgia and Florida. And if seeds maintain, all three might scare the No. 2 seeds of their areas within the second spherical.

How a lot will the committee take into account accidents?

That is purported to be one thing that has all the time given weight — however how a lot is all the time depending on the views of every committee. Does a bubble group comparable to 23-8 Villanova, which reached the Huge East match last, get some leeway due to the six video games star Maddy Siegrist missed on account of damage in November and December?

How about Missouri State, which misplaced senior heart Jasmine Franklin to a torn ACL in late December, however completed second within the Missouri Valley? Missouri State and regular-season champ Southern Illinois misplaced within the MVC semifinals Saturday, so Northern Iowa and Illinois State will play for the title and NCAA computerized bid Sunday.

And if the MVC is a two-bid league, how does that affect the bubble? Northwestern, Boston College, DePaul and UCLA are the “first 4 out” in Creme’s projection via Saturday’s video games.

Will the SEC get 9 groups within the discipline?

That is what Creme is predicting, and it’ll come down as to whether each Arkansas and Missouri make it. They every completed 7-9 in league play, with the Razorbacks 18-13 general and the Tigers 18-12. They met within the SEC match with Arkansas profitable in additional time, and the Razorbacks additionally received their regular-season assembly.

However Missouri has victories over No. 1 South Carolina and Florida, which was ranked No. 15 on the time. Will the Tigers get the nod?

Some ladies’s basketball observers do not like when the committee offers this many bids to a Energy 5 convention, particularly because it issues two groups with shedding league data. But it is the energy of a league just like the SEC that makes for a compelling argument for each Arkansas and Missouri.