Charlie CremeMar 15, 2025, 09:35 PM ET
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- Charlie Creme tasks the ladies’s NCAA match bracket for ESPN.com.
With the No. 1 seeds reputedly set for the ladies’s NCAA match and a bubble with out a lot intensity or drama, probably the most greatest bracket choices for the NCAA Department I Girls’s Basketball Committee have already been made.
That does not imply finalizing the authentic bracket forward of its liberate on Variety Sunday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN) can be simple — as weeks of toiling over Bracketology have illustrated.
South Carolina, UCLA, USC and Texas must be the headliners when the bracket is introduced, with UConn proper in the back of the No. 1 seeds.
The Gamecocks, Bruins, Longhorns and Notre Dame all had a flip at No. 1 within the polls this 12 months, a seasonlong show off of simply how broad open the race to the 2025 championship in Tampa might be.
Because the committee finishes deliberations each large and small, ESPN appears on the questions it faces that can maximum affect the general bracket.
The place will the highest seeds play within the regionals?
Matchups, matchups, matchups. Probably the most essential issues to look at Sunday would be the geographical placement of the highest seeds and the way it affects which groups stand of their approach at the highway to Tampa.
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Whilst the id of the 4 No. 1 seeds would possibly were set heading into Championship Sunday on March 9, the order shifted following the identify video games within the SEC and Giant Ten. How the committee now sees that order is what is going to decide the possible matchups deep within the NCAA match. The entire discussions about the most efficient groups within the regionals and which groups have the most efficient likelihood to advance to the Ultimate 4 can be formed via the order of the Nos. 1 and a couple of seeds.
The loss to South Carolina within the SEC championship recreation possibly shifted Texas from the highest No. 1 seed to the fourth. If the committee is of the same opinion, the Longhorns will nonetheless be within the Birmingham Regional however will now most likely be in the similar area as UConn because the No. 2 seed — as an alternative of probably with TCU. Texas went from being paired with a program and not using a vital NCAA match revel in to at least one with greater than someone within the box.
As a result of UCLA and USC are each at the No. 1 line, they are going to get to play within the Spokane Regional in reverse brackets. Notre Dame’s struggles on the finish of the steady season and within the ACC match driven the Irish again sufficient that it now seems like they are going to be taking the longer travel to the Northwest to sign up for one of the crucial L.A. faculties.
The committee does no longer venture matchups down the street within the NCAA match. Its process is to choose the fitting 68 groups because the participants see them, seed them correctly and stay the bracket as balanced as conceivable. Nonetheless, the selections Sunday will most likely have an effect on the video games two weeks from now, serving to to create the storylines that gasoline the game at crucial time of the season.
How a lot did Champ Week affect the highest 16?
Alabama, Tennessee and Maryland have extra Quad 1 wins than Baylor. Kansas State’s NET score is six spots upper than that of the Bears. But Baylor seems like a extra worthy option to be within the most sensible 16 and earn the fitting to host first- and second-round NCAA match video games.
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The Bears have been additionally taking part in from in the back of getting into Champ Week, however they made it to the Giant 12 match finals, whilst the Purple Tide, Woman Vols, Terps and Wildcats have been a mixed 2-4 in convention match play. Because of this, Baylor slid previous the ones groups and into the highest 16. It used to be the similar for Ohio State, which reached the Giant Ten semifinals. The Buckeyes have 9 wins towards different groups possibly within the box. Even with a NET score of nineteen, that collection of wins towards just right groups must be sufficient for Ohio State’s inclusion within the most sensible 16.
Will the committee agree?
For the reason that most sensible 16 seeds host early-round video games within the girls’s NCAA match, deciding on the highest 16 is without doubt one of the maximum impactful choices the committee makes yearly. And whilst the Bears and Buckeyes must be the selection this season, leisure confident that figuring out this can be a long-debated a part of the method.
Which group takes the general spot within the box?
It must come all the way down to Princeton or Virginia Tech — and this could be the hardest determination the committee makes in all of the technique of deciding on the bracket. Only one 12 months after the Ivy League were given two groups into the NCAA match, the convention is on the point of having 3 groups pass from Ivy Insanity to March Insanity. As a result of it is a bubble with little intensity, two Ivy groups must get bids (Harvard gained the Ivy’s automated berth) — and with a regular-season identify and two wins over Princeton, Columbia has the simpler case than the Tigers.
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That leaves Princeton up towards Virginia Tech, the one different viable candidate. Each résumés are filled with holes. The Hokies had 9 probabilities in Quad 1 and gained a type of video games. Princeton additionally had just one Quad 1 win, at Harvard on Feb. 28. Their NET rankings are necessarily the similar (Virginia Tech 46, Princeton 47). The Tigers have been 4-4 in Quad 1 and a couple of video games and 6-6 towards the highest 100 of the NET. The Hokies have been 3-8 and 7-12, respectively.
Princeton performed a fairly harder nonconference time table. However Virginia Tech beat Louisville and Cal. Not one of the Tigers’ wins are that just right. On the other hand, in addition they do not have losses as dangerous as Virginia Tech’s: to Stanford and Virginia at house, and to Syracuse and Boston School at the highway. The ones losses, mixed with Virginia Tech dropping 4 of its ultimate six video games so far, could be the variation.
Remaining 12 months, Columbia were given an at-large bid with 0 Quad wins and a NET of 57 over groups with higher numbers in each classes however with deficient finishes, similar to the Hokies this 12 months. No two seasons are the similar, however remaining season gives a parallel. Princeton could be the group to capitalize in 2025.
