UConn is not bad for women's basketball.

I would go further than that, but I have always found it difficult to respond to illogical and incoherent assertions.

The "UConn is bad for basketball" argument falls apart the moment someone who never watches women's basketball types word one about it for the first time because of UConn.

That said, I can agree with the premise of the nonsense: UConn is a dominant force and barring something catastrophic, they will remain undefeated and win the 2010 NCAA women's basketball title. 

Just how dominant is UConn?

The statistic that stands out to me is their effective field goal percentage: playing against the 2nd toughest schedule in the nation, the Huskies outshot their opponents with an eFG% of 56.24% to 33.99%. That's quite astounding considering that they've faced some of the best competition the nation has to offer. That they dominate the offensive boards and force a strong turnover differential becomes secondary.

So when looking at the Dayton bracket, the real question is simply who will join UConn in the Elite Eight.

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Forward Jasmine Dixon had an impressive season for UCLA, but Stanford's "three-headed monster" proved too much for her to overcome. (Photo by Craig Bennett)

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There seems to be universal acknowledgment from ESPN, blogs, and bulletin boards that UCLA was under-seeded.

Call it funny math, but if there are four regions, and UCLA was ranked in the top 25 for the last few weeks with a RPI of 21, then it would seem like they should get no lower than a 6 or 7 seed.

But to be honest, at first I simply wasn't particularly surprised with their seeding:

1. The Pac-10 was simply not that good this year and for most of the season, it would have been considered reasonable for the conference to get more than two bids.
2. Losing to Stanford by progressively larger margins could not have helped their credibility, nor could a few other odd losses and close games with not-so-great teams.
3. Appreciating how good they are requires looking at their performance pre- and post-Jasmine Dixon when they became a much stronger team overall.
4. The close games in a bad conference does nothing to highlight the team's strength: defense.

It's the last point that I find most interesting though in thinking about UCLA's chances and why they almost definitely should have been harder -- although I've heard some people dismiss their defense as merely "throwing the kitchen sink at opponents', at the same time it's extremely effective. And taking account for one of the best defenses in the nation simply doesn't show up in the RPI, SOS, or any other statistics.

Making matters worse, UCLA got an eight seed next to #1 seed Nebraska, a team that is not just good, but pretty much has similar statistical strengths as UCLA...but does everything better...and has that Kelsey Griffin individual you may have heard of. So their chances of getting to the Sweet 16 certainly appear slim.

However, UCLA coach Nikki Caldwell didn't win the Pac-10 Coach of the Year for nothing and for that reason, I'm picking the Bruins as a potential dark horse candidate in the Kansas City bracket in the most blatant act of West Coast bias I've exhibited to date. This would of course require a few things to break their way, but my Pac-10 homerism stops short of finding ways to "disappear" Griffin.

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University of Washington sophomore guard Kristi Kingma hopes to keep the season going with three more games in the inaugural Women's Basketball Invitational tournament. (Photo via jlindstr.smugmug.com)

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First round play of the inaugural Women's Basketball Invitational in Seattle was odd, to say the least, but underneath the lopsided outcome was a deeper level of shared meaning.

University of Washington forward Mollie Williams, who has gone 0-5 from the three point line in her first two years in Seattle pulled up for a three with 5:50 left in the first half.

Center Laura McLellan got one of Washington's season-high 18 steals with at the 5:30 mark and dribbled half the court for a lay-up.

McLellan capped off a dominant first half by shooting a three with just over a minute left in the game, her first shot from downtown since taking two in the 2006-07 season.

Yet the radio announcer aptly described the pace with about 8 minutes left in the first half: "The Huskies look like they're moving slow motion."

Oh yeah, the University of Portland was present too, but weren't exactly a factor on the court.

The Huskies were able to move in slow motion because the Pilots came out and "laid an egg" as Portland coach Jim Sollars described. Portland turned the ball over 14 times in the first half, gaveup 10 offensive rebounds, and only shot 30% overall and 28.57% on 2 point shots.

"This game has slowed to a snail's pace," said the radio announcer with a minute left. "The Huskies will send Portland back down the I-5 corridor, ending their season with a defeat."

He wasn't just imagining things either -- the Pilots looked like a team that was disinterested in making the relatively short trip to Seattle to begin with and Washington was able to discomfit them without much effort.

"We looked like we didn't have legs, we didn't play with maturity, we didn't play with discipline, didn't do the things that we have to do," said Sollars. "Mentally, it just didn't look like we were ready to play the game."

So despite a 75-44 win for UW and by far their best performance of the season statistically, it was not exactly an exemplar of what makes basketball beautiful. It's perfectly reasonable to wonder whether part of Portland's problem was the context itself.

"Anything like this [tournament], you always wonder, ‘how many of your kids are really gonna show to be ready to play'," said Sollars. "But I don't think that was it - certainly I don't think the staff felt that way. I just think it was symptomatic of we are not a very mature team - one senior and we haven't  had a lot of leadership all year long.

"When we're running and shooting the ball well, we're a good basketball team, but that's a big if -I think we're 14-0 when we score 70 points. And they just need to grow up and understand that it's not gonna be easy all the time. And I think the lessons to be learned are you gotta be tough, you gotta be disciplined, you gotta play good defense because there are nights when the ball is not going through the hole and there are nights when you can't run on people. And that's where I think the maturity comes - they just have to understand that."

So on the surface, a game like this one in what could be considered be perfect fodder for those that might suggest this tournament is unnecessary and simply a waste of time and resources. On the one hand, UW looked like they were walking around cones in their offensive sets while on the other hand, Portland looked wholly disinterested in playing basketball. However, there was value beyond the play on the court for the development of the young players and growing programs that participated.

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While watching the NIT over dinner with a friend last night, we started talking about how pointless it would be to expand the NCAA men's basketball tournament - not only would it water down the whole experience, but it would virtually destroy the NIT.

During the brief conversation, we also found that neither of us has ever watched or followed the "other" tournaments: the CBI or CIT.

So why then should anyone care about the new Women's Basketball Invitational (WBI), a tournament that offers 3 seeds to teams like the University of Washington, a 12-17 team that just lost to last place Oregon State University in the Pac-10 tournament?

In describing the value of the tournament in an article yesterday, Seattle Times reporter Jayda Evans described an "equality factor" in creating the tournament: not only does the tournament give more women's basketball programs an opportunity to play post-season basketball and offer the opportunity to profit from doing so, but it is also more fair than the WNIT.

"Last year when I wasn't coaching I did a number of things - I was a broadcaster for Fox, but the other thing I did was I was a consultant for Sports Tours International and they run tournaments all over the world," said Seattle University coach Joan Bonvicini, who was "partly the brainchild" of the tournament according to organizers. "I had a tough job - I was in the Bahamas, in Cancun, places like that. One of the things I noticed once I was there is that there was the NIT for women and the men have the CBI and Insiders and I felt there should be more opportunities for women. So I told them, ‘I think we should run a tournament and in the NIT it's like the highest bid gets the home game; we're going to do it fair.'"

Bret Seymour of Sports Tours International, the company organizing the tournament, said that in addition to the transparency that comes from being a pre-determined, 16 team field with higher seeds hosting - which the WNIT is not - the tournament cedes control to those host institutions. With control not only comes control of the venue, but control of the profit.

"I think it is nice for teams to 'control' the management of the games," said Seymour. "They have professional event management people to do this. They know how to run games. They don't need us telling them how to do it. Most importantly, they get to keep all revenues for the game-unlike the WNIT where there is revenue sharing. We don't set ticket prices, we don't tell teams what to do with students, we don't charge radio rights fees, we don't charge fees for parking, or live streaming video. We take no cut off any profit made by a University. If they want to let everyone in free, I say go for it. This is a fresh, 180 degree difference in philosophy."

However, there is even more to the tournament than control, equality, transparency, and profit, all - especially the latter - certainly attractive selling points to participating institutions. The tournament might better represent the concept of equity - it's not just about women's basketball getting closer to having the same number of opportunities to participate in the post-season, but actually providing women's basketball programs an opportunity to develop, as described by Washington coach Tia Jackson.

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Last, but certainly not least- after the wonderful job the Valley did hosting the Final Four last year, I have nothing but respect for them.

Who? The Panthers of Northern Iowa.

Where? Cedar Falls, Iowa, where Kurt Warner stocked shelves before that whole NFL thing happened.

When? Sunday the 14th in St. Charles, MO.

How? Lizzie Boeck put up 19 points and the Panthers edged Creighton 54-53.

Upset? Sure was. The Panthers took out top-seeded Illinois State before beating second-seeded Creighton. (Apparently Redbirds and Bluejays are the natural prey of the Panther.)

RPI: 116

SOS: 88

The Valley prides itself on its basketball- both men's and women's.

Sophomore guard Jacqui Kalin's 14.5 points lead the Panthers, as she drains it from downtown at a 36.1% clip. Junior forward Erin Brocka is the team's leading rebounder at 7.8 per game. Junior guard Lizzie Boeck is second in both categories with 12.0 points and 6.2 rebounds. If Northern Iowa is able to get a lead late in their tournament game, they've got good chances of holding it; of the eight players who play more than ten minutes per game, seven shoot better than 70% from the line, led by Kalin's 89.7%. Looking at their high-score totals from the season, it looks like the younger players have come of age late in this season; they relied heavily on the seniors early, but the younger players came on late. Other than defensively, where they give up better than 40% shooting, I'm not seeing any bad numbers to explain the 17-15 record.

Out of conference, their record is uninspiring; their best wins are against Butler and Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Two four-game losing streaks will haunt them in seeding, because though it might be a Valley-Big East match, this is still not a good year to lose to Louisville by 28, and it's been a while since there was a good year to lose to Missouri by 17.

Who? The Vikings of Cleveland State.

Where? Cleveland, OH, home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (and former home of the Rockers).

When? Sunday the 14th in Green Bay, WI.

How? Viking starters played 196 of a possible 200 minutes, and Kailey Klein posted 23 points and 10 rebounds to beat Butler 66-57.

Upset? Yes. Fourth-seeded Cleveland State knocked out top-seeded Wisconsin-Green Bay in overtime in the semis before finishing off second-seeded Butler. Cleveland State was 11-7 in the Horizon, four games behind Green Bay.

RPI: 125

SOS: 148

What is it with Vikings and glass slippers this year? This is the second Viking team to pull an upset in its conference tournament. (Those of you who have been following this season's Strictly Come Dancing series can name the other immediately, of course.)

First-team All-Horizon Kailey Klein, a senior guard, leads the way for Cleveland State with 18.6 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. She gets help from junior guard Shawnita Garland, whose thirteen points per game are the other double-figure average for the Vikings, and whose five rebounds per game are third on the team. An average of three steals is pretty nice to have too. Overtime would appear to be their time, with all apologies to Maryland; in three overtime matches this season, they've outscored opponents 39-19.

Against Iona in Cancun and at home against Indiana are their best wins, and losing by two to Wisconsin isn't bad. Marshall and Kent State were their worst OOC losses, with some ugly ones in conference as well.

Who? The Dukes of James Madison.

Where? Harrisonburg, VA, home to the Virginia Quilt Museum. (You laugh, but quilts and basketball go well together.)

When? Sunday the 14th in Harrisonburg, VA.

How? Dawn Evans notched 25 points and 7 assists to lead JMU to a 67-53 win over Old Dominion.

Upset? Yes. Old Dominion won the regular season title, finishing one game ahead of JMU.

RPI: 34

SOS: 96

Bubble teams and fans all over the country breathed a sigh of relief when James Madison knocked out the bipolar Lady Monarchs, who went 14-4 in a solid CAA but a bad 4-9 outside it.

Junior guard Dawn Evans is where it all starts for James Madison, who averages 24.8 points per game (and yet is second in the conference, go figure). She's not afraid to crank it up from anywhere, with 606 attempts on the season, 321 from beyond the arc, but she gets to the line and converts as well. She also averages 4.7 assists per game to lead the team. The other double-figure scorer on this team is freshman forward Tarik Hislop, who puts in 10.2 points per game. Senior guard Sarah Williams's 6.6 rebounds are tops on the team, closely followed by junior forward Jalissa Taylor's 6.5. The minute distribution is the odd stat for me- ten players average at least 14.7 minutes per game, but three average over 30. I know it has to do with the three overtime games they played, but it still seems odd.

It's hard to pick their best out-of-conference win from between Georgetown and Virginia. Wouldn't you like to have a problem like that? Back-to-back losses in conference to William & Mary and UNC-Wilmington look awful on the resume, especially with Evans available for the second of those games.

Who? The Lady Flames of Liberty.

Where? Lynchburg, VA, where Jerry Falwell once debated Larry Flynt.

When? Sunday the 14th in High Point, NC.

How? Up 14 at the half against Gardner-Webb, Liberty held off a Bulldog surge to pull out a 68-66 victory.  (Edited because reading boxscores on five hours' time-shifted sleep makes numbers go backwards.)

Upset? Yep. Gardner-Webb won the regular season crown a game ahead of Liberty.

RPI: 89

SOS: 286

You know what I said earlier about teams who might have been having slightly down years but who have lots of tournament experience to draw on? Hey, look, there's Liberty, back in the dance again despite losing a whole passel of Frazees.

Redshirt freshman guard Devon Brown leads the way for Liberty, averaging 16.9 points per game and tying for the team high in rebounds with sophomore forward Avery Warley, as each pull in 8.6 a game. Warley is second on the team in scoring with 10.8. Senior guard Amber Mays runs the offense for this team with just under four assists and over two steals per game. Freshman forward Jelena Antic, recovering from a leg injury, is a factor to be considered on the inside, where the Lady Flames' strength has long been.

Their best out-of-conference win was a neutral-site victory over Tulane; a pair of in-state losses by 10 to James Madison and nine to Virginia don't hurt too much, and neither does a six-point loss to Auburn. Getting swept by Gardner-Webb in conference play probably didn't do them any favors, even if they avenged the losses in the tournament.