Ladies get the 5-seed they deserved

With no recent history of Tournament snubbing to raise the collective blood pressure, there was little drama Monday night.  The #19 Colorado women's basketball team was 100% going to be in the Tournament for the first time since 2004, probably with a nice seed to boot.  They even knew where they'd be playing - at home in Boulder.  The only bits left to be decided were when, and against whom.

Shortly after 5pm yesterday, those few remaining questions were answered, as ESPN announced that the ladies would be playing old Big XII rival Kansas in an always tricky 5/12 game Saturday afternoon at the CEC.  I may have wanted to see Nebraska's name pop up in the same pod, but the Jayhawks will do nicely.

The ladies celebrate the announcement.  From: CUBuffs.com

The rhetoric from the CU camp was entirely positive.  Outside, however, the reaction was mixed.  While former CU star, and current ESPN contributor, Kate Fagan (who was on that '04 team) talked up how battle-tested the Jayhawks are, ESPN's bracketologist Charlie Creme was calling Kansas' bubble profile "one of the worst for an at-large choice in recent memory."

I admittedly know very little about how tough Kansas may or may not be, but I'm very confident that the Buffs, who have yet to lose to an unranked team this year, will make short-work of them in the friendly confines of the Coors Events Center.

If and when the ladies get past the Jayhawks over the weekend, they'll play the winner of the 4/13 matchup between South Carolina and South Dakota State.  As a top-25 team for most of the season, the Gamecocks will be heavily favored to survive to Monday's round of 32.

I still like the Buffs to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.  Assuming they get past Kansas, you have to like the matchup with the road-tripping Gamecocks, who will be playing 1,600 miles away, and over 5,000 feet higher than their home in Columbia, SC.  Hosting does have it's advantages, after all.