WE'RE TALKING WBB...IN OCTOBER? WHY NOT?
I know, there are a lot of you who read this website that would prefer to talk (and have us talk) women's basketball all year long. Don't get us wrong, we love the sport and can talk about it hours on end, but we also pay tribute and talk about some of the other women's sports we follow and cheer for on campus.
Today, we WILL cover a couple of WBB items. First up (in the "are you kidding me" category) -- bracketology for 2022-23 DI WBB. That rascal Charlie Creme is already projecting seeds in brackets for the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
He's got Louisville as a #3 seed playing in the Greenville Region. Being a three seed, the Cards would get to start at home, in the KFC YUM! Center and Charlie has Louisville starting against Towson, and then playing the winner (if the Cards win) between South Dakota St. and Washington St Creme has Tennessee as the #1 seed in the Greenville Bracket, followed by Iowa as the #2 seed and North Carolina State as the #4 seed.
Keep in mind, two regionals, not just one, will be played at Greenville, and in the other regional, #1 is South Carolina, .#2 is Notre Dame, #3 is Indiana and #4 is Oklahoma. The other regional site that will hold two regionals is Seattle. And, yes, the state of Connecticut hosts again four teams, one being #2 seed UConn. in the Seattle Regional in Storrs.
I have a hard time with this on several fronts. First, just two regional sites after the first two games? They've set it up nicely for Stanford and South Carolina, haven't they? Louisville and NC State in the same region is another gripe. Both have the potential of being Final Four Teams, but sticking them both in the same region mean they won't. And, Virginia Tech is a #4 seed? Really? The Hokies? C'mon man....I love Kenny Brooks and all, but the Hokies were 15-10 last year and Baylor beat them by almost 50 points in the NCAA Tournament. They're not even the fourth best team in the ACC, in my reckonings.
The thing is, it's all speculation and mostly nonsense this early. Louisville doesn't even play their first game until November 7th. But, I suppose it does give people something to talk about Rush out and get your reservations in Dallas, home for the Final Four, from March 31st to April 2nd.
ENGSTLER, KONNO ON FIBA 3X3 U 23 ROSTERS
One graduated Louisville Cardinals WBB star and one veteran player on Jeff Walz's squad will be participating in the World Cup, in Romania, Oct 5-9.
Emily Engstler will suit up for the USA squad, along with Norika Konno playing for the Japanese U23 3x3 roster.
Engstler won't be playing with Hailey Van Lith in this one, her teammates will be Veronica Burton, Lexie Hull and N'dea Jones. Burton was on the Dallas Wings WNBA Roster this past season and was on the 2021 USA Americup squad, Hull played on the Indiana Fever with Engstler and this will be her first international team experience. Jones was on the USA FIBA 3x3 squad that played in Romania last year.
Konno was on Team Japan this summer and they went 2-0 in the Asia Cup before falling to China in the semifinals. Konno also participated in the trials for Japan's 2020 women's Olympic team. She's the lone seniior on the Cardinals 2022-23 roster, although there are five players that are playing under a "graduate" status.
Konno and Engstler's squad will play in the same pool for world cup qualifying and the top two teams out of each pool qualify for the World Cup. Japan and USA face each other in Pool play on Oct 7th, at the ridiculous Eastern time zone time of 4:45 AM. Both squad start play this morning and games can be viewed on You Tube. Japan plays their first around 6:30 this morning.
paulie
Watching a little of the 3x3 earlier this morning , sounded like Borat doing play by play. Had to scoot before Konno played.
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