Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 14, 1994 TAG: 9403140138
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: KANSAS CITY, MO. LENGTH: Medium
Virginia, the regular-season ACC champion, was seeded third in the Mideast. The Cavaliers will face 14th-seeded Loyola, Md., at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at University Hall.
Second-ranked Colorado was seeded third in the West, behind Purdue and 11th-ranked Stanford. North Carolina, ranked fifth in the poll, was seeded third in the East, behind Connecticut and 12th-ranked Vanderbilt.
Texas Tech, the 1993 NCAA champion, is seeded second in the Midwest. The Red Raiders, led last season by Sheryl Swoopes' tournament-record 177 points in five games, beat Ohio State 84-82 for the championship.
The Buckeyes did not make this year's tournament field, which for the first time was expanded to 64 teams, the same as the men's tournament. In recent years, the women's field was 48 teams.
All first-round games will be Wednesday at campus sites. After the second round this weekend, the teams advance to regionals March 24 and 26 in Fayetteville, Ark.; Austin, Texas; Stanford, Calif.; and Piscataway, N.J. The women's Final Four, with Virginia Commonwealth as the host, will be April 2-3 in Richmond, Va.
Tennessee, which like seventh-ranked Louisiana Tech made the tournament field for the 13th consecutive year, is seeded first in the Mideast. The Lady Vols (29-1) will open play at home against North Carolina A&T.
Southern Cal (23-3), seeded second in the Mideast, will be home against Portland (17-11). Louisiana Tech (26-3) is seeded fourth in the region, and it will open at home against Southern Methodist (18-8).
"Well, it's obviously a very difficult bracket," said Debbie Ryan, Virginia's coach. "Our side of the bracket is very challenging, [but] the good thing is they're all different teams we haven't seen all year. That piques the players' interest."
Loyola, located in Baltimore, lost its first six games and is making its first NCAA appearance. Virginia is in the tournament for the 11th consecutive season.
"We really haven't seen much of Loyola except for a couple of tournament games that we had on tape," Ryan said.
"We did not practice for two days after the ACC tournament, but we have practiced very hard the last couple of days and, hopefully, exorcised some of our demons."
In the Midwest, top-seeded Penn State (25-2) will open against Fordham (21-8). The second seed, Texas Tech (26-4), will play at home against Missouri (12-17), which won the Big Eight tournament with a 79-71 overtime victory over Colorado.
Third-seeded Iowa (20-6) meets Mount St. Mary's, Md. (25-3), and Vermont (19-10) is at fourth-seeded Seton Hall (25-4).
In the West, top-seeded Purdue (25-4) opens against Radford (18-11) in West Lafayette, Ind., and Stanford (22-5), the No. 2 seed, is home to Wisconsin-Green Bay (18-10), one of at least 17 teams making their first appearance in the tournament. Colorado, second-ranked in the nation and seeded third in the West, will entertain Marquette (22-6), another first-time participant. Fourth-seeded Florida (22-6) plays at Texas A&M (21-7) because of a scheduling conflict with a Rod Stewart concert at its arena in Gainesville.
"I've been thinking about buying a CD player, and I'm now going to go buy one and get every Rod Stewart album," said Lynn Hickey, Texas A&M's coach.
by CNB