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Lady Bears should be a No. 1 Seed

After winning 29 games, in the Nation's Top RPI conference, Baylor should be a no brainer for a top seed.

By Chuck Chaney
Ron Chenoy-US PRESSWIRE

Coaches say they don't care about being a No. 1 seed. They say they'd rather be No. 2, 3 or 6 seed. But keep them away from being a No. 4 or 5 seed.

However, after winning the Big 12 Championship on Monday night, Kim Mulkey's Baylor Lady Bears have made a quality case for being a No. 1 Seed.

You can probably pencil in three schools as a No. 1 seed, UConn (34-0), Notre Dame (32-0), and Stanford (29-3).

That leaves the Lady Bears to fight for that final seed against Tennessee Lady Volunteers, Duke and South Carolina. Tennessee and Baylor has a leg up on the other two squads, they won their conference championships.

If we did a blind comparison of the four teams vying for that final spot: Strength of schedule (sos)

  • 27-6, Reg. Season Runner-up, Conference Runner-up. (SOS): 1, 7-6 vs. Top 25.
  • 29-4, Reg. Season Champ, Conference Champ. (SOS): 38, 11-3 vs. Top 25
  • 27-5, Reg. Season Champ. Conference Champ. (SOS): 2, 6-3 vs. Top 25
  • 29-3, Reg. Season Champ. (SOS): 24. 4-1 vs. Top 25

The team with the most wins as well as regular and conference champion and the most wins against the Top 25 is your Baylor Lady Bears. While their strength of schedule isn't as Top as the others, they've won more games against more quality opponent than anyone else in the nation.

The other teams are Duke first, Tennessee and then Stanford.

"From top to bottom," West Virginia head coach, Mike Carey said. "The Big 12 is the strongest conference I ever coached in, from top to bottom. There's just not a lot of off nights."

That's a credit to the strength of the Big 12, and just how truly good the Lady Bears are this season. Their three losses to Top 25 teams are to #1 UConn, #5 Kentucky Wildcats (in a 4 OT game none the less), and to #11 West Virginia Mountaineers.

"Are there any major BCS leagues that play each other twice," Baylor coach Kim Mulkey asked. "We might be the only two leagues, this league and that one that do it. But what you hope happens is the selection committee understands, wow, let's look at this league they're in and how tough it is and give us a lot of good seeds."

Even if the Lady Bears aren't a No. 1 seed, the rest of the NCAA Tournament field better be on high alert.

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