Josh Tinley.com NCAA Tournament Breakdown (Women's Edition)

• The Volunteer State is well represented in this year's women's draw. One way to determine which states are best represented is to assign points based on seeds (16 points for a #1, 15 for a #2, and so on) and total the points for schools in a given state. Tennessee—represented by #1 Tennessee, #2 Vanderbilt, #5 MTSU, #12 UT-Chattanooga, and #14 Belmont—has a point total of 51, three more than North Carolina (#1 Duke, #1 North Carolina, #4 NC State, and #14 UNC-Asheville) and ten more than any state in the men's tourney.


• The greater Nashville area has three teams in the tourney, including Middle Tennessee State, who was rewarded a much-deserve #5 seed for playing a tough non-conference schedule and completely dominating the Sun Belt. Unfortunately, they are in the brutal Dayton region and will likely have to play Ohio State if they defeat Gonzaga in the first round. The Buckeyes, led by former Vanderbilt coach Jim Foster, went 28-3, won the Big Ten regular season title, and were ranked in the top ten most of the season. A #4 seed is extremely low for a team with such a strong resume, but Ohio State's was likely hurt when star guard Brandie Hoskins went down with a torn Achilles. The Dayton region also includes defending champ Maryland, who was #1 for most of the first half of the season, as a #2 seed. And #3 seed Oklahoma may be the most dangerous #3 in the tournament.


• Speaking of Oklahoma, I picked the Sooners to go all the way. I have doubts about my pick, since I can't remember a time when the women's champion was not a #1 or #2 seed. But I picked Oklahoma because I think that Courtney Paris is the type of player who can carry a team on her back and take them deep into the tournament, possibly going all the way.