Vols Intend To Avoid Madness Favored Tennessee Doesn’t Want To Be Next Victim Of An Upset

Sat., March 21, 1998

Associated Press

One regional for sure will send a new team to the Final Four. Alabama hopes to advance without a controversial finish this time. And in Nashville, there’s a group of Rutgers players just young and innocent enough to think they actually can beat Tennessee.

The national title might be Tennessee’s to lose, but after an opening weekend of several stunning upsets, today’s regional semifinals in the NCAA women’s tournament still offer some interesting storylines.

“I think it’s probably the strangest tournament we’ve seen,” Tennessee coach Pat Summitt said. “It’s why we’re always tagging this as March Madness - because things do happen.

“It’s good for fan and media interest. I just don’t want to be on the receiving end of it.”

The madness includes the early ouster of No. 1 seeds Texas Tech in the Midwest and Stanford in the West. That has turned those two regionals into completely neutral courts. The Midwest is on Tech’s home floor in Lubbock, the West is in Oakland, Calif., just across the Bay from Stanford.

Theoretically, the Mideast in Nashville is neutral, too. Actually, it will become Tennessee’s home away from home with thousands of orange-clad Vols fans packing Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gymnasium.

Tennessee (35-0) hopes for an unprecedented third straight NCAA title. Fifthseeded Rutgers (22-9) wants to end all the best-ever talk now. North Carolina (26-6) plays Illinois (20-9) in the other Mideast game.

In the East at Dayton, Ohio, Connecticut (33-2) plays Arizona (23-6) and North Carolina State (23-6) meets Old Dominion (29-2), the national runner-up last year.

The Midwest has Purdue (22-9) playing Notre Dame (22-9) and Louisiana Tech (28-3) meeting Alabama (24-9). The West semifinals are Arkansas (20-10) against Kansas (23-8) and Florida (23-8) against Duke (23-7).

In the Midwest, Alabama is trying to move on after being helped by officiating errors in its 75-74 second-round victory over UCLA.

The East is the only regional that has the top four seeds still playing. Old Dominion is the No. 1 seed and Connecticut is seeded second.

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Vols Intend To Avoid Madness Favored Tennessee Doesn’t Want To Be Next Victim Of An Upset

Jesse Tinsley

Jim Meehan

Molly Quinn

Rob Curley

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