Mulkey will have her team fired up

Yes indeed

Cool

Honestly ucla in the S16 worries me more than Iowa in the elite 8 potentially

Oh no one wants lsu in their region for sure. Media/commentators have been saying for months.


I was just talking about matchups. Iowa is great but that would be a game LSU should have a very nice advantage down in the post. Plus their D isn’t that great. Obviously LSU and Iowa would need to take care of business before even truly entertaining all that

I like the tough regional. The ladies have played their best against big time teams & pushovers.

It's the mediocre teams (not great but good enough to beat you if you give a half-arse effort) that could bite, but there aren't many of those in this regional. Even a probable matchup with mediocre Louisville will provide motivation.

They'll be fired up & running on all cylinders for potential big time matches/rematches with UCLA, Iowa or Colorado.

I agree with you 357. If we get out of the UCLA game alive we're playing Dawn again.

It’s an incredibly tough region. Much more difficult than last year on paper.

I still like them getting to the regional final against Iowa, but you have to imagine beating Clark will be harder this time around.

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What’s the realistic expectation? Sweet 16, Elite 8?

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The expectation is to get to the Final Four. Doesn’t mean that we will, but we didn’t start the season preseason #1 only to be “happy” with a Sweet 16 berth.

UCLA in the Sweet 16 is going to be a battle. Then again, last year we beat Utah in the Sweet 16 thanks to two missed free throws by them in the final seconds. And then won it all. Teams rarely coast to a NCAA title, there are usually a game or two that goes down to the wire.

I’m really not sure Iowa even makes it to the Elite 8. LSU has no reason to look ahead to them when we have such a tough road to even get to them.

The more I sit and look at it, then entire draw for LSU is just a pain in the arse.

Round 2---usually some blah Power 5 school who finished in the middle of their conference and their peak as a program would be a Sweet 16---but no...we get Louisville, whose coach has taken them to 5 straight Elite 8's.

And the added bullshite of HVL having to deal with "what's it going to be like playing your old team" questions all week.

Sweet 16: a UCLA team that is crushing it on defense. They gave up 80 to USC last game but before that allowed 57, 41, 41, 45, 52, 55. They are huge, but have shooters also.

Elite 8: Iowa. I think if we get past the other 2 games, this one oddly scares me less.

quote:

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Round 2---usually some blah Power 5 school who finished in the middle of their conference and their peak as a program would be a Sweet 16---but no...we get Louisville, whose coach has taken them to 5 straight Elite 8's. And the added bullshite of HVL having to deal with "what's it going to be like playing your old team" questions all week.

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Yes it seems to give credence to the idea that narratives are being pushed. LSU should have been a two seed and Louisville could have been a four seed host or at worst a five seed. And yes, Louisville is a perennial power with good coaching. We of course did not get the best of draws two years ago with Ohio State coming to Baton Rouge. That may have been understandable but I thought as defending NC’s we were going to get a better seed and matchup.

They may not need the help against MT but you can be sure that the unspoken directive to the officials is do what they can to get Louisville into the second round vs LSU.

It’s like the committee verbalized it in their smoke-filled room: “Guys, Angel Reese is last year’s news. Sure let’s milk it for what it’s worth, but let’s do everything we can to make sure LSU isn’t in the Final Four.”