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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Stanford No. 2 Seed; UW Gets Tough Draw

Earl Gustkey Los Angeles Times

Women

No. 1-ranked Connecticut, Tennessee and Colorado were seeded No. 1 as expected, but a No. 1 given to Vanderbilt raised some eyebrows Sunday when pairings were announced for the 64-team NCAA women’s basketball tournament.

Vanderbilt’s No. 1 was of particular surprise to Pacific-10 champion Stanford. The fifth-ranked Cardinal (26-2) had anticipated being No. 1 in the West but wound up No. 2 behind Vanderbilt (26-6), which upset Tennessee in the Southeastern Conference tournament.

The March 23-25 regional sites: UCLA (West), Connecticut (East), Tennessee (Mideast) and Drake (Midwest). The Final Four is April 1-2 at Minneapolis’ Target Center.

Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer seemed annoyed Sunday at the her team’s plight.

“It’s disappointing. It was surprising,” she said. “Was the NCAA making a statement about our conference? I don’t know. I don’t want to spend a lot of time wondering about it. But maybe it can be a motivating factor for our team.”

Stanford lost only at Tennessee early in the season and at Oregon State. Vanderbilt was 14-6 against top-25 teams and 15-6 against 17 of the 64 teams in the tournament.

The NCAA wasn’t the only target of VanDerveer’s ire Sunday. Stanford finished the regular season with a 55-50 victory at Washington, and when it ended, VanDerveer and Huskies coach Chris Gobrecht were screaming at each other at midcourt.

VanDerveer apparently knocked Washington’s aggressive, physical style of defense during a pregame radio interview.

“We heard what she said, and she said some very disrespectful things about our players,” Gobrecht said.

“And my players told me Tara was yelling at them during the game, calling them ‘hackers.’ I told her I didn’t like that either.”

VanDerveer’s version differs markedly.

“I shook hands with her as the game ended, but she didn’t let go,” VanDerveer said. “She said something like, how dare I criticize her defense. … I was so surprised I didn’t get all of it. I wasn’t prepared for a midcourt lecture.”

She probably won’t be a position to get another from Gobrect until next year. Washington (23-8), ranked 14th, was placed in the Mideast Regional, where it would be a decided underdog against Tennessee and Texas Tech.

North Carolina (28-4), which beat Louisiana Tech for last year’s title, was placed in the West. Tar Heels coach Sylvia Hatchell said she hopes her team can deliver a message:

“The ACC credibility just isn’t there (in the NCAA’s view) and we’ll use our seeding as a rallying cry. … We’ll go out there and prove something.”

Louisiana Tech (26-4) was seeded No. 2 the East, behind Connecticut.