Monday, March 10, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
For Colorado, the NCAA women's basketball tournament pairings brought a big surprise. For Arkansas, they brought more disappointment. For Connecticut, ho-hum, another No. 1 seed.
And in the end, they'll produce some new faces in the Final Four for the first time since 1994.
Second-ranked Old Dominion, No. 3 Stanford and No. 4 North Carolina joined top-ranked Connecticut as the No. 1 seeds in Sunday's announcement. That was the way it had been shaping up all along.
The surprise was unranked Colorado, only the No. 3 seed in the Big 12 Conference tournament, becoming a No. 2 seed in the NCAA field.
"I'm ecstatic," said Colorado coach Ceal Barry said, whose team will play in the Midwest Regional. "I couldn't have hoped for a No. 2 seed. Obviously, the Big 12 tournament made a big difference to the committee."
Colorado (21-8) won the Big 12 tournament in Kansas City after finishing two games behind league champion Kansas in the regular season. The NCAA selection committee met in Kansas City and was keenly aware of what Colorado was doing across town.
The Buffaloes take a six-game winning streak into NCAA play and have won 11 of their last 13.
"About five weeks ago, we weren't even sure we were going to make the tournament," Barry said.
Another big factor in Colorado's favor was its schedule. Seven of the eight teams it lost to also made the NCAA tournament.
"We just felt like Colorado, playing as well as they did down the stretch and certainly having gone out and won the conference championship and beaten some quality teams to do that, deserved to be a No. 2 seed," said Jean Lenti Ponsetto, who's senior associate athletic director at DePaul and chairs the selection committee.
Colorado is in a tough region, though, because Connecticut is sitting there as the No. 1 seed and defending national champion Tennessee is the No. 3 seed. That means there will be no Connecticut-Tennessee showdown in the Final Four, which has occurred the last two years.
Connecticut, a No. 1 seed for the fourth straight year, beat Tennessee to win the 1995 national championship, and Tennessee defeated Connecticut in last year's semifinals en route to the title. The latest they'd meet this year is the regional finals in Iowa City on March 24.
Georgia and Stanford also have played in the last two Final Fours and they, too, are in the same region -- the West.
"I kind of had an idea we were going to be in the same bracket as Tennessee or Georgia," Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma said. "That was almost a given, I thought. It seems they set it up so it would be impossible for the same four teams to get back."
Old Dominion is the top seed in the Mideast and North Carolina was given the No. 1 seed in the East. North Carolina rebounded to get a No. 1 seed after finishing 13-14 last season and not making the tournament.
Arkansas was left out the tournament with 20 victories last season and didn't make it with 18 this time. The Lady Razorbacks were hurt by a soft non-conference schedule and their 5-7 record in the Southeastern Conference, which landed seven teams in the tournament.
"We pick up one rebound against Florida, maybe we're 6-6 in the league," said Arkansas coach Gary Blair, whose team lost to Florida 79-66 in overtime. "Does that make us that much better? I'm not sure.
"The kids are disappointed. It was a good season for us, but it takes a great season to make it in the SEC."
The SEC teams that did make it are Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Tennessee and Vanderbilt. Blair felt the league was deserving of eight teams, noting that his team and the seven others have been ranked in the Top 25 much of the season.
"Either the coaches are all wrong, all of you writers are wrong or something is wrong with the system," he said.
The teams that had been on the bubble in the other power conferences all made it in - Maryland of the Atlantic Coast Conference, Northwestern of the Big Ten, DePaul of Conference USA, Iowa State of the Big 12 and Washington of the Pac-10.
Ponsetto said the at-large pool was so deep that it was difficult to finally decide who should and shouldn't get in.
"It was a solid 25 or 30 more than it was a year ago," she said. "I can tell you that in previous years, we've always been done by Sunday morning. This committee did not walk out of the room until 3 o'clock this afternoon.
"So we had a lot more deliberating, a lot more discussion about the at-large teams - and this is my fifth year on the committee - than we've had in the past."
But well worth the effort, she added.
"It is a very competitive field this year. I think it's the strongest we've had," Ponsetto said. "Since we've gone to 64 teams, a lot of people have improved the quality of their women's basketball programs. I think that's exceptionally good for the game.
"I'm excited about it. I think we're going to have great first- and second-round matchups that we haven't had in previous years."
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