Beltway Basketball Beat: Bracket Racket XII — Maryland and Virginia Tech Women among those tipping-off Friday
Amid the Insanity that delivers 16 first spherical video games within the males’s and girls’s tournaments, the Maryland Girls return to a web site the place they’ve had a lot March success over time. At some point within the books. How are everybody’s sheets? You didn’t have Colorado State or Iowa, did you? Proper now,…
Amid the Insanity that delivers 16 first spherical video games within the males’s and girls’s tournaments, the Maryland Girls return to a web site the place they’ve had a lot March success over time.
At some point within the books. How are everybody’s sheets? You didn’t have Colorado State or Iowa, did you?
Proper now, we’re within the eye of the hurricane: 16 video games performed over 12 hours Thursday and 16 extra to be performed on Friday. In the meantime, the Girls’s NCAA Event rolls out 16 first-round video games Friday and 16 extra Saturday. We will breathe on Monday — I promise.
Maryland (21-8) has been in a position to breathe for the final two weeks, as they haven’t performed since March 4 once they fell to Indiana within the quarterfinals of the Huge Ten Event 62-51.
The crew that started the season ranked fourth by the writers and fifth by the coaches handled a number of accidents that trimmed their rotation to seven gamers and saved starters Diamond Miller and Ashley Owusu on the shelf for prolonged stretches.
“This 12 months we had some robust losses, we’ve handled sickness, we’ve handled damage,” guard Katie Benzan stated. “This 12 months concerning these challenges-no matter what occurred, we caught collectively and we’re combating. And that’s as a lot as we are able to hope. And we’ll proceed to combat in March.”
Benzan is certainly one of three gamers on this 12 months’s crew receiving All-American discover: whereas she and Owusu obtained Honorable Point out, sophomore ahead Angel Reese was named Third Crew All-American after averaging 18 factors with 11 rebounds per recreation.
After taking part in the likes of Preseason No. 1 South Carolina, defending nationwide champion Stanford and perennial energy Baylor, together with a Huge Ten Convention that had 5 groups end within the Prime 25, Reese and firm are prepared for what’s subsequent.
“Seeing a tricky schedule, we’ve seen every thing. The whole lot has hit us. Totally different defenses have hit us,” Reese stated. “I feel we’re prepared for something — there’s nothing we haven’t seen.”
The Terrapins host the primary weekend of the NCAA’s for the ninth time in 12 years, however having home-court benefit is not any automated go to the regional spherical: they misplaced on the Xfinity Heart ground as a No. 2 seed in 2016, as a No. 3 seed in 2019, and to Georgetown as a No. 4 seed in 2011. However they know full effectively the bonus of taking part in at dwelling.
“You’re snug. You’re at your own home web site, you get to sleep in your individual beds. That’s what you’re employed for all 12 months is to have that benefit,” Maryland head coach Brenda Frese stated. “However on the finish of the day you continue to have to have the ability to come out and put the 40 minutes collectively.”
Their first 40 minutes (at minimal) shall be towards CAA champion Delaware (24-7). The Blue Hens completed a recreation behind Drexel for the regular-season title however defeated the Dragons 63-59 to safe the automated bid. Jasmine Dickey tallied 27 factors with 18 rebounds in that recreation, and that’s not too far off the norm for the senior from Baltimore who averages 25 factors and 10 boards.
Dickey is certainly one of 4 senior starters on this crew that reached the WNIT semifinals final March. Ty Battle additionally averages a double-double (12 factors and 11 rebounds) and the Blue Hens led the CAA in rebounding margin.
Coach Natasha Adair guided Georgetown to a pair of WNIT appearances earlier than leaving D.C. for Newark in 2017 and has a rotation of 9 gamers who common greater than 10 minutes per recreation. Tipoff slated for five p.m.
The opposite First Spherical recreation in School Park has Virginia Tech (23-9) dealing with Florida Gulf Coast (29-2). The Hokies completed No. 16 within the writers’ rankings and No. 23 within the Coaches’ Ballot after dropping within the ACC Semifinals to eventual champion NC State and went 5-7 towards ranked foes this winter.
Former James Madison Coach Kenny Brooks is in his sixth 12 months in Blacksburg and has guided the Hokies to consecutive NCAA bids for the primary time since 2005. They’re led inside by Elizabeth Kitley (17 factors and 10 rebounds per recreation) and out of doors by Georgia Amoore (11 factors and 4 assists per contest).
The Eagles misplaced each of their video games to Princeton in December and to Stetson in February. They’re led by former Ohio State guard Kierstan Bell (the junior transferred to the Atlantic Solar faculty after one season with the Buckeyes) who nets 24 factors and 10 rebounds per recreation.
Twenty-five of their wins have come by double digits they usually’ve crushed main convention colleges like LSU and Michigan State on their approach to the NCAA’s.
The lads’s first spherical has already given us a 12-vs-5 upset (Richmond over Iowa). Might the ladies’s first spherical ship the identical? Tipoff at 2:30 p.m.
