NCAAW reveal: No surprise that South Carolina, Baylor sit atop the top 16 seeds

The March Madness hype officially has begun. During halftime of the hotly-awaited matchup between the No. 3 Oregon Ducks and the No. 4 UConn Huskies on Monday night, the top 16 seeds in college women’s basketball were revealed. The NCAA selection committee has determined that, if regional competitions were to begin today, the following teams would appear.

With five weeks left in the regular season, anything can happen. But with the Ducks out-dueling the Huskies — up 44-31 at halftime in Storrs, Conn. — it looks like the selection committee got it right by putting UConn below both Oregon and Louisville.

Top 16 seeds

Here are the teams (with overall record as of Feb. 3):

#1. No. 1 South Carolina (21-1)

#2. No. 2 Baylor (19-1)

#3. No. 5 Louisville (21-1)

#4. No. 3 Oregon (19-2)

#5. No. 4 UConn (19-1)

#6. No. 6 Stanford (20-2)

#7. No. 7 NC State (21-1)

#8. No. 13 Maryland (17-4)

#9. No. 9 Oregon State (18-4)

#10. No. 8 Mississippi State (19-3)

#11. No. 19 UCLA (19-2)

#12. No. 11 Gonzaga (22-1)

#13. No. 12 Arizona (18-3)

#14. No. 14 DePaul (20-3)

#15. No. 20 Iowa (18-4)

#16. No. 21 Northwestern (19-3)

According to Carolyn Peck, the only two teams far ahead of the pack in terms of asserting true domination in college women’s basketball are the South Carolina Gamecocks and the Baylor Lady Bears. Maybe it’s time for the prognosticators to give both teams their due — South Carolina, for showing they’re for real, despite being a freshman-heavy squad, and Baylor, for sustaining last year’s success even with the loss of Kalani Brown to graduation.