NCAA Division 1 Basketball
What happened on Selection Monday

In February womensbasketball-in-france reviewed the NCAA basketball season for a number of players who had played in France before moving to the USA.

We were correct in our prediction that Jodie Cornelie-Sigmundova (Dayton), Wilka Montout (South Carolina) and Allison Vernerey (Duke) should order their dancing shoes because they have qualified for the Big Dance.

Allison Vernerey was the only player from France guaranteed a place at the Big Dance before the selection on Monday because Duke had won the ACC Tournament.

Wilka Montout plays for South Carolina in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). This conference is considered a power conference and six teams in addition to the Conference champions have been invited by the NCAA selection committee.

Jodie Cornelie-Sigmundova's team Dayton were favourites to win the Atlantic 10 conference tournament but were eliminated in the semi-final. However with a national ranking of 18 and a season record of 27 wins and two defeats the committee had to invite them.

During the ESPN Selection Monday, the 64 teams found out their seeding and in what brackets they were assigned to.

The brackets are built as follows: The Championship is split into four regions with 16 teams per region. Each team within a region is assigned a seeding from 1 to 16.

The brackets (draw) is predefined and the winner of each game proceeds to the next round. The winner from each region then qualifies for the Final 4 which is in New Orleans this year.

Duke are number 2 seed which means anything less than an Elite 8 (quarter-final) appearance will be viewed as a shock. South Carolina have been picked as a number 4 seed which means that they are expected to qualify for the Sweet 16.

Dayton are seeded 7th which means that they are expected to qualify for the second round.

The time table of events, taken from an NCAA press release is as follows:

"First- and second-round games will be played at 16 sites Saturday, March 23, thru Tuesday, March 26, with the 16 second-round winners moving on to the four regional sites.  The Bridgeport Regional (Webster Bank Arena at Harbor Yard, Bridgeport, Conn.) and the Spokane Regional (Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, Spokane, Wash.) will be played on Saturday, March 30, and Monday, April 1, while the Norfolk Regional (Ted Constant Center, Norfolk, Va.) and the Oklahoma City Regional (Chesapeake Energy Arena, Oklahoma City, Okla.) will be held Sunday, March 31, and Tuesday, April 2. The four regional winners will advance to the 2013 NCAA Women’s Final Four April 7 and 9 in New Orleans (New Orleans Arena)."

Other post-season qualifications

Katrin Chiemeka (Davidson) and Najat Ouardad (Aubern) missed out on the Big Dance but will continue their season in the WNIT (Women's National Invitational Tournament) which is also a 64-team tournament. 31 places are reserved for the highest placed team per conference that is not invited to the Big Dance. 

The remaining 33 places are picked by the WNIT selection panel.

Due to the fact that matches are played on campuses of the schools concerned, no seeding is used to draw up brackets. Instead the WNIT tries as much as possible to keep contests regional.

The third post-season tournament, the WBI (Women's Basketball Invitational) is a 16-team competition. Christelle Akon-Akech from Fairfield University will be playing in this competition.

For all the other players from France their season is over.

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NCAA picture credits:
All the pictures on this page come from the Associated Press (AP) and the Universities of the players mentioned.

Date created: 20 March 2013

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