By ROBERT CESSNAThe Texas A&M women's basketball team got its wish Monday and was placed as far away as possible from top-ranked Connecticut for the NCAA Tournament, but eventually the Aggies really wouldn't mind playing the Huskies.
The Aggies, who earned a No. 2 seed for the third straight year, were placed in the Sacramento Region, which has Stanford as the top seed.
A&M (27-5) will open the tournament in Seattle against No. 15 seed Portland State (18-14) at 7:06 p.m. Saturday. The other game at Bank of America Arena at the University of Washington will pit No. 7 seed Gonzaga (27-4) against No. 10 North Carolina (19-11).
The second-round game will be Monday, with the winner advancing to Sacramento for a March 27 & 29 regional. The other top seeds in the region are No. 3 Xavier, which will be hosting first- and second-round games in Cincinnati, and No. 4 Oklahoma State, which opens in Tempe, Ariz.
A crowd of more than 400 supporters at the Cox-McFerrin Center for Aggie Basketball drowned out the ESPN broadcasters when it was announced the Aggies were heading West.
ESPN analyst Kara Lawson said the Aggies are a team that has the potential to make a deep run and reach the Final Four, which drew another round of applause.
A&M has won three straight first-round games, reaching the Elite Eight two years ago and the Sweet 16 last year in its quest to make its first Final Four appearance.
"We will not be sleeping in Seattle," A&M head coach Gary Blair said. "We will be out there ready to play good basketball."
This is A&M's fifth straight NCAA Tournament appearance, its seventh overall and its most favorable draw. The Aggies lost to eventual national champ Tennessee, the overall No. 1 seed, in the regional championship three years ago. Last year the Aggies were upset by sixth-seeded Arizona State in the regional semifinals with UConn looming next if the Aggies had won.
This time the Aggies earned a trip West by winning nine of their last 10 games. A&M beat 15th-ranked Texas, third-ranked Nebraska and 12th-ranked Oklahoma in Kansas City over the weekend to win the Big 12 Tournament.
"We want to make a run [in the NCAA Tournament]," Blair said. "Winning the Big 12 Tournament, that's great, but this team will be measured on what they do in the NCAA Tournament."
That's why everyone points toward UConn, which has won a record 72 straight games and is the overwhelming favorite to win its second straight title and seventh overall under coach Geno Auriemma. The Huskies were placed in the Dayton Region, which means they couldn't face A&M until April 6 in San Antonio for the title.
"Folks, I'm going to lobby here for just a little bit," Blair said after beating Oklahoma on Sunday. "Now, whether or not they give us two No. 2 seeds, that's up to the committee. But doggone it, we've earned the right not to be in Geno's region."
The NCAA probably paid attention to what A&M did, not what Blair said, but he's hopeful his players will listen to their coach.
"We're going to Seattle to do one thing and that's win basketball games, and not think about San Antone or think about Sacramento," Blair said. "We're going to Seattle to get the job done."
The Big 12, the country's top-ranked league, as expected sent seven teams to the Tournament. Regular-season champ Nebraska is the No. 1 seed in the Kansas City Region, whose winner is matched up with the Sacramento champ.
Oklahoma is the No. 3 seed in Kansas City. Iowa State is No. 4 in the Dayton Region, and Baylor is the No. 4 seed and Texas the No. 6 seed in the Memphis Region, which has Tennessee as the top seed.
The last time Stanford was a No. 1 seed was 1998 and Blair, who was at Arkansas, remembers it well.
Stanford was upset by No. 16 seed Harvard in the first round. Blair's No. 9-seeded Razorbacks beat Hawaii, Harvard, Kansas and Duke to reach the Final Four, where they lost to eventual national champ Tennessee in Kansas City.
"Just the fact that it doesn't matter who you're playing or where you're playing," Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. "You need to come out and really play well. We will talk about that, for sure. We all know what happened the last time we were a No. 1 seed and obviously we don't want that repeated."
Stanford's lone loss this season was to UConn.
This will be Blair's second trip to Seattle for an NCAA Tournament. His Stephen F. Austin team was seeded No. 2 and lost to third-seeded Southern Cal and Lisa Leslie 61-57 in the Sweet 16 in 1992. Top-seeded Stanford then defeated USC en route to its last national championship.
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NOTES -- Portland State won the Big Sky tourney. ... A&M beat West Coast Conference champ Gonzaga on Dec. 20 at the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic, 80-76. ... This is the second straight year Gonzaga has been placed in Seattle. Last year as a No. 12 seed, the Bulldogs upset Xavier before losing to Pittsburgh. ... North Carolina, out of the Atlantic Coast Conference, is an at-large selection. ... A&M was ranked No. 9 in the final Associated Press Top 25 poll. The Aggies are also No. 9 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches poll.
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