NCAA Tournament 2000 - Road to Philly begins in Louisiana

Road to Philly begins in Louisiana
By Mary Foster
Associated Press

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Three Louisiana women's basketball teams received bids to the NCAA Tournament on Sunday -- and two of them will host the first and second round games.

No. 3 Louisiana Tech, No. 15 LSU, and No. 21 Tulane all made it into the tournament. Tech and LSU will play their first games at home.

"That's huge," said LSU coach Sue Gunter. "The games aren't easier, but to get to sleep in familiar beds, eat familiar food, and play on a familiar court in front of our fans is great."

LSU (22-6), which lost to Vanderbilt 59-46 in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament, is the No. 3 seed in the East Regional. LSU will play 14th seeded Liberty in its first game.

"We'll start trying to get film on them tonight and start practicing immediately," Gunter said. "Everything is top speed at this time of the year."

LSU has made nine NCAA Tournament appearances, getting to the round of 16 last year.

The other teams in the Tigers' bracket are 7th seed Marquette, No. 10 seed Western Kentucky, No. 2 seed Duke, and Campbell, the 15th seed. The No. 1 seed in the East is Connecticut. Should the Tigers and the Huskies advance to the semifinals, they would be facing each other.

First- and second-round games will be played March 17 or 18, 19 or 20.

No. 3 Louisiana Tech, (28-2) won the Sunbelt tournament 97-94 over Western Kentucky. The Techsters are the top seed in the Midwest Regional and will take on 16th seed Alcorn State in their first NCAA game.

"This may be the fairest bracket I've ever seen," said Tech coach Leon Barmore, who has been to every NCAA tournament played -- 19 of them.

Also in Tech's bracket are eighth seed Kansas, ninth seed Vanderbilt, fifth seed North Carolina State and No. 12 seed SMU.

The first- and second-round games in Ruston will be played March 17 or 18, and March 19 or 20.

No. 21 Tulane (26-4) won the Conference USA tournament en route to receiving its sixth consecutive berth into the NCAA Tournament.

Tulane was seeded sixth in the Mideast Regional and will travel to Tennessee for the first round game. The Vols are the No. 1 seed in the tournament and could be the Green Waves' opponent if both school advance to the third round.

Tulane will open with 11th seeded Vermont.


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