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NCAA Tournament "at large" candidate University of Richmond Women

Spiders slip a couple of NET spots to 32, leapfrogged by idle Creighton and Illinois, which defeated Nebraska.
 
7 votes in the coaches poll this week, down from 9 last week. Mason also dropped, from 5 to 2.
 
Davidson beats George Mason. With that Spiders are 1 win away from getting 1-seed and at least co-share of regular season championship. 2 wins for outright title. Other factor is George Mason plays at St. Joe’s on Sunday. With a GMU loss, spiders will also get the 1 seed.

Both George Mason and St. Joe’s are coming off losses and needing a big win for at-large hopes. Should be a great game for the casual fan.

Winning an A10 championship after beating VCU Sunday will be extra sweet. Hope a good contingent of spider fans can make it in person!
 
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I'm back from my travels, so figured I'd check in on where things stand. As noted by 17, the Spiders are firmly in the driver's seat for the regular-season title and 1-seed, though we've got a tough finish to the schedule. Mason is our biggest threat at the moment at 1.5 games back, but we've got the H2H over them. Joe's and Davidson are three games back with three to play, so it would take an utter collapse for them to catch us (and even then they would only tie us with a H2H split).

Current NETs:
32. UR
44. Mason
52. Joe's
87. Davidson

Bracketologies:

- ESPN: Spiders still a 10-seed facing Vandy for a likely matchup with Southern Cal. St. Joe's third team out and Mason fifth team out.

- NCAA.com: 10-seed facing Illinois for a likely matchup with TCU. No other A-10 teams in the bracket or first four out.

- Her Hoop Stats: 10-seed facing Illinois for a likely shot at TCU. Mason is last team in with a First Four game against Iowa State. St. Joe's is third team out.

- CBS: Holding steady at a 9-seed. Mason is fourth team out.

- College Sports Madness: Spiders are a 9-seed facing Louisville for a likely matchup with UConn. No other A-10 teams in the bracket or first four out.
 
Spiders held steady at #33 in the NET between yesterday and today. Mason only slipped a couple of spots to #45 with their loss to St. Joe's, which bumped up two spots to #50. Our other remaining opponent Davidson continues to drift upward, rising three spots to #84 with their win yesterday.

Fairfield continues to bounce between a Q1 and Q2 win for us. Yesterday they were at #45 and thus a Q1, but today they're at #48 and a Q2 despite not playing. They're 21–3 and still undefeated in MAAC play.
 
Spiders get 12 votes in the AP poll, up from 10 last week. Good for 30th.

Texas is the new #1 after NC State knocked off Notre Dame yesterday. Tennessee is up to #11, Alabama is at #20, and Oklahoma State is at #21. Fairfield got 1 vote.

 
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Spiders get 12 votes in the AP poll, up from 10 last week. Good for 30th.

Texas is the new #1 after NC State knocked off Notre Dame yesterday. Tennessee is up to #11, Alabama is at #20, and Oklahoma State is at #21. Fairfield got 1 vote.

Zero non P5 schools are ranked in the women's Top 25. We have the second most votes in the country among non P5 programs. Really impressive.
 
AP voter breakdown:

SF Gate's Alex Simon has us at #22. Mark Story of the Lexington Herald-Leader has us at #23. Kim Adams of Fox Sports and Chantel Jennings and Sabreena Merchant of The Athletic have us at #25. (That only adds up to 10 points by my count, so not sure where the other 2 points are from...I looked through the ballots twice.)

Kind of annoying that Stu Durando isn't giving us any love.
 
AP voter breakdown:

SF Gate's Alex Simon has us at #22. Mark Story of the Lexington Herald-Leader has us at #23. Kim Adams of Fox Sports and Chantel Jennings and Sabreena Merchant of The Athletic have us at #25. (That only adds up to 10 points by my count, so not sure where the other 2 points are from...I looked through the ballots twice.)

Kind of annoying that Stu Durando isn't giving us any love.
I voted twice.
 
Lot of interesting aspects for the Spiders in the latest bracketology from ESPN... 10-seed Spiders facing Iowa in an easy trip to Raleigh for a likely shot at NC State.

 
Spiders hold steady at 7 votes in the coaches poll, good for 30th.

Texas at #1, Tennessee at #11, Alabama at #20, and Oklahoma State at #23. Mason got a single vote.

 
Spiders move up one place in the NET to #32 as Minnesota slipped a few spots with a loss. St. Joe's dropped three spots to #53 with their loss to Dayton last night. Would be nice if they could hang in the top 55 so that our home win over them stays a Q2, but of course we also want to beat them like a drum on Saturday.

A couple other bracketology updates since I last posted them here:

- NCAA.com (2/25): Still a 10-seed playing Illinois to potentially face TCU. Mason and Joe's not in the picture.

- College Sports Madness (2/24): Still a 9-seed, but now playing Vanderbilt in the UCLA pod. No other A-10 teams in the bracket or first four out.
 
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Spiders slip a NET spot to #33, getting passed by Mississippi State which actually lost last night...but it was to Texas by only 4 points.

ESPN has also bumped us up to a dreaded 9-seed, playing Cal in the UCLA pod. That would be a tough travel draw.
 
I’d love to be in the NCAA tournament and even get a win in the tournament, which would be fantastic and history making. But the best chance for us make a Cinderella run is the 6-11 seed match up first and second is the 7-10 seed match up. I doubt we will be seeded 12 or lower or higher than 7. My guess is 9 or 10 seed.
 
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Not a fan of being shipped all the way to the West Coast, but if we end up as a 9, it's a 50/50 shot right now with both UCLA and USC being 1-seeds in the latest committee ranking. Give me a 10 where all the current 2-seeds are Eastern or Central. Same with the 3-seeds if we slip to an 11.
 
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Not a fan of being shipped all the way to the West Coast, but if we end up as a 9, it's a 50/50 shot right now with both UCLA and USC being 1-seeds in the latest committee ranking. Give me a 10 where all the current 2-seeds are Eastern or Central. Same with the 3-seeds if we slip to an 11.

right now it would be 66.7%. Texas is a 1 and they won't do a rematch. I assume ncaa women adhere to same no rematch policy rd 1 a men.

idk I don't mind the LA trip. good trip for team. not so much for fans but if u look at any of the sites where we'd be a 7/10, r the fans going to travel to any of them? likely just Raleigh. in theory yes a 10 or 11 gives a better chance at run. I just don't think that's it's significabtly higher. Those current 2 seeds on average r more proven than the 1 seeds overall. more matchup driven than anything which I can't speak to well in lady hoops. we still need to get the rd1 win regardless.
 
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The only non-conference rematch rule for the women is that they won't pair two teams that played in last year's First Four or first round.

That isn't even a hard and fast rule on the men's side, as they have a "when possible" qualifier in there.

No-rematch guidelines are more extensive for teams from the same conference.

Remember, we played Duke in the first round last year when we'd already played them in the regular season. A potential second-round meeting with Texas would not be an issue for the committee.

 
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The only non-conference rematch rule for the women is that they won't pair two teams that played in last year's First Four or first round.

That isn't even a hard and fast rule on the men's side, as they have a "when possible" qualifier in there.

No-rematch guidelines are more extensive for teams from the same conference.

Remember, we played Duke in the first round last year when we'd already played them in the regular season. A potential second-round meeting with Texas would not be an issue for the committee.


Ok so that means no Duke rd 1 guaranteed...tho maybe a qualifier for that too. Thx I forgot we rematched with Duke last year. That was stupid. I actually like the no rematch rule rd 1.

I knew there was a qualifier on men's side but it's kind of a theory vs. practice thing. I don't know if they've ever done a rematch from reg season from whenever that unofficial rule/guideline started. I don't recall hearing of any. r u aware?
 
Duke is currently a 3-seed with the committee, so they'd have to slip quite a bit to be a potential first-round opponent for us, so it's extremely unlikely to be an issue. Zero chance we're a 14 or even a 13. Almost certainly not even a 12, and Duke is very unlikely to slide to a 6 or worse at this point.

Not sure about recent first-round rematches from the regular season on the men's side. There's this 2022 article with a list that includes USC/SMU rematch in 2017 as the most recent, but don't know if any have happened since that article.

 
Thanks for posting this. Thrilled that GMU is on the other side of the bracket. I think they're clearly the second best team in the conference by far. The game that Maggie had against them was heroic or we would've lost.... and was one of the best in recent memory and basically restarted our season.

Aside from that, I don't mind the first round matchup. Neither team we'll take lightly. We basically either get a rematch from our only conference loss or a team that beat us last year that i'm sure none of them forget either. So, that sets up well for us.... not that I think this team needs an excuse to be focused.

Incredibly proud of the effort again today and looking forward to both tournaments. But, let's get another trophy first :)... they deserve it.
 
Thanks for posting this. Thrilled that GMU is on the other side of the bracket. I think they're clearly the second best team in the conference by far. The game that Maggie had against them was heroic or we would've lost.... and was one of the best in recent memory and basically restarted our season.

Aside from that, I don't mind the first round matchup. Neither team we'll take lightly. We basically either get a rematch from our only conference loss or a team that beat us last year that i'm sure none of them forget either. So, that sets up well for us.... not that I think this team needs an excuse to be focused.

Incredibly proud of the effort again today and looking forward to both tournaments. But, let's get another trophy first :)... they deserve it.
I am most nervous for GMU, especially given if we were to meet them it would be in a championship game. Very good team who beat us last year and barely lost to us this year. Will likely have a good amount of fans in Henrico Sports Complex (not as many as us though) and will play motivated to not only avenge this season’s loss but also get their first ever NCAA bid. Will be a very good game to the neutral observer. Nerve wracking for us!
 
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Spiders sneak back above Mississippi State to #32 in the NET. I really don't see any way we don't have a bid locked up.

The only thing that gives me the slightest bit of hesitation is the two Q4 losses, as we're the only team in the top 50 NET with that many. (St. Joe's at #52 and 16–3 in Q4 is the next team after us with 2+.) A loss to either Fordham or Duquesne in our next game would be another Q4.

But I think our performance at the top more than makes up for it...the really nice win over Oklahoma State, hanging with Texas and Alabama, and 5–0 in Q2 games.

Agree that Mason is probably the team I most don't want to face. We were lucky to escape with a home win over them. That said, they've shown some weakness at the end of the season, getting beaten pretty handily by both Davidson and St. Joe's before rebounding with an easy win over Duquesne in their finale.

The only really recent bracketology update I see is Her Hoop Stats from late last night. They've still got us as a 10-seed, facing Utah in the NC State pod. Mason and Joe's are the second and third teams out in their bracket.

 
Spiders sneak back above Mississippi State to #32 in the NET. I really don't see any way we don't have a bid locked up.

The only thing that gives me the slightest bit of hesitation is the two Q4 losses, as we're the only team in the top 50 NET with that many. (St. Joe's at #52 and 16–3 in Q4 is the next team after us with 2+.) A loss to either Fordham or Duquesne in our next game would be another Q4.

But I think our performance at the top more than makes up for it...the really nice win over Oklahoma State, hanging with Texas and Alabama, and 5–0 in Q2 games.

Agree that Mason is probably the team I most don't want to face. We were lucky to escape with a home win over them. That said, they've shown some weakness at the end of the season, getting beaten pretty handily by both Davidson and St. Joe's before rebounding with an easy win over Duquesne in their finale.

The only really recent bracketology update I see is Her Hoop Stats from late last night. They've still got us as a 10-seed, facing Utah in the NC State pod. Mason and Joe's are the second and third teams out in their bracket.



This team could beat both Utah and NC State. Those would be welcome matchups for us!
 
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Spiders sneak back above Mississippi State to #32 in the NET. I really don't see any way we don't have a bid locked up.

The only thing that gives me the slightest bit of hesitation is the two Q4 losses, as we're the only team in the top 50 NET with that many. (St. Joe's at #52 and 16–3 in Q4 is the next team after us with 2+.) A loss to either Fordham or Duquesne in our next game would be another Q4.

But I think our performance at the top more than makes up for it...the really nice win over Oklahoma State, hanging with Texas and Alabama, and 5–0 in Q2 games.

Agree that Mason is probably the team I most don't want to face. We were lucky to escape with a home win over them. That said, they've shown some weakness at the end of the season, getting beaten pretty handily by both Davidson and St. Joe's before rebounding with an easy win over Duquesne in their finale.

The only really recent bracketology update I see is Her Hoop Stats from late last night. They've still got us as a 10-seed, facing Utah in the NC State pod. Mason and Joe's are the second and third teams out in their bracket.

I think we're in regardless, but one more win avoiding the scenario you mention... and its 100% IMO.
 
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Just to add to this.... I really don't think it matters, but the overall resume is pretty damn impressive. The road wins against Fairfield and Temple... the neutral over Oklahoma State.... and the semi-home over Columbia with three of the five losses to top 20 SEC teams including a close game at home to the #1 and a neutral court game we probably should've won against Alabama? I don't think it matters what we do at this point..... and it shouldn't... but we are absolutely not losing the first one anyway.... and I am sure these girls aren't focused on that and want back-to-back trophies. Looking forward to it.
 
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