Chuck Burton/Associated Press Duke hopes to extend its celebration into the N.C.A.A. tournament.The strategic women’s hoops fan will likely fill out their N.C.A.A. tournament bracket by advancing the top seeds, Baylor, Connecticut, Tennessee and Stanford, all the way to the Final Four. But taking a longer view of history, it’s been 22 years since all four No. 1 seeds reached the Final Four.
For those playing the odds and looking for an underachiever due for a Final Four breakout run, there are two suggestions: No. 2 Duke (Philadelphia regional) and No. 4 Ohio State (Dayton regional)
The Blue Devils (29-3) have been in the conversation for years as
one of the nation’s best teams, but have never been able to make the jump to winning the N.C.A.A. title. Their path to this year’s Final Four will be difficult, having to get through No. 7 Iowa, No.
3 DePaul and then Connecticut.
Coach Joanne P. McCallie sees her team as hungry, wanting to be the Duke team that enters the mainstream.
“We have a lot to prove,” McCallie told the Durham Herald-Sun. “Women’s basketball, in general, doesn’t believe in Duke. It’s very clear by that. It’s clear by what they say. It’s clear how our kids get no (national) coverage. It’s clear how our heralded freshman class didn’t get a mention. It’s very clear that we have no coverage.
“So for us, that’s O.K. We’ve got a lot of proving to do as a team, and that should provide an edge.”
Duke’s tournament kicks off against No. 15 Tennessee-Martin. Further down the road, a rematch with the Huskies would be especially welcome. The teams played Jan. 31, with Connecticut steamrolling Duke, 87-51.
“We’d love to be in a position where we could be talking about playing Connecticut,” McCallie said. “But that is so far off and so far out in the stratosphere right now. We’ve got to stay in the moment. These teams are all terrific. I feel like the older players will send that message that ‘It is Tennessee-Martin, folks’. It’s dominoes. You’ve got to knock them down and it goes by twos and you earn your way to the next round.”
Ohio State (22-9) has been one of the hottest teams down the stretch, building a nine-game winning streak that carried them to the Big Ten tournament title. Granted, the Buckeyes aren’t on par yet with the winning streaks of Marist (26 games) Stanford and Wisconsin-Green Bay (23 each), Tennessee (22) or Connecticut (20).
But Ohio State can point to finally putting things together when it mattered, surviving tough, N.C.A.A. tournament-bound competition in the Big Ten such as Michigan State and Purdue. Ohio State, coming into the stretch run, was 13-9 and looked to be flirting with not making the tournament.
“When you looked at the schedule, and it was in front of you, it looked formidable,” Ohio State Coach Jim Foster told the Columbus Dispatch. “When you look at it from the rear-view mirror, it was perfect….We beat teams that were playing for something this time of the year. Nobody was going through the motions. We’ve been playing teams that needed to win the game and thought they could win the game.”
The Buckeyes’ road to the Final Four doesn’t appear as tough as Duke’s, but Tennessee, then No. 2 Notre Dame potentially lie in wait.