ESPN bracketology has them at a 12 seed right now.

ESPN currently has us as a #12 seed vs. #5 Missouri State.

Nice, that'd be a sweet seed.

Irvine was up 32-30 with 4 minutes left and we ended the game on a 31-10 run. That’s one hell of a finish.

As for the tourney, with it all being at one spot, we should get a legit seed rather than matched up against whatever designated high seed from the PAC-12 is there. No worries about travel.

Aggies went 9-11 in the 4th and held Irvine to 3-14. Wow.

Overall the Aggie D held Irvine to 16 points total in the 2nd half. De-fence! *clap clap*

Jen Gross and her staff have built a Big West dynasty. We're so lucky to have her. She has created a winning, family culture that's talented, smart and humble. The Aggie Women's Basketball Program epitomizes the best of Aggie Athletics. Now let's see if we can pull off an upset or 2 in the NCAA Tournament!

Jorja -> Sandy -> Jen is a heck of a line-up. Davis is very fortunate.

Good point, Jen had a good foundation to build on...

Looking at two different bracketology sources they're saying we'd be a #12 seed playing the likes of Iowa or Missouri State. I think that would be the best seed we've ever had for either men's or women's teams, yes?

Sure liked how we looked in Q4!

ESPN will air the Women's NCAA Selecton Show at 4 pm on Monday.

Yeah, it seems pretty clear we're past any sort of potential "just got lucky with a recruiting class or two" phase. It seems like there's no true rebuilding year, just reloading. Obviously that doesn't mean we're going to rip through the league at 14-2 each year and win the tourney, but we're clearly going to be in the mix every year.

I mean, 2017-18 team went 28-7 and 14-2 in the league. They graduated players ranked #1, 2, 4 and 7 in minutes and #2, 3, 4 and 7 in points. The next year they go 25-7 and 15-1 in the league. I know you might say "oh, well they still had Bertsch, who won the BW POY and was a three-time first teamer, plus the Eaton's". Fair point. So you'd certainly expect a huge dropoff from that year after losing three of your top four players in minutes and three of your top six players in points, right, especially after what they lost the year before? Well they fell all the way to 17-2 but still ripped through the conference at 12-4.

Then this year, they go 9-1 in the conference. Missed out on Bakersfield (home), UCR (road), UCI (home) and Fullerton (road). I know Fullerton stayed close in the tourney but we're winning those games. Even if you say they split the other three series, that's still a 12-4 year. Realistically, they probably sweep at least one of UCR and Bakersfield so we're probably looking at 14-2 or 13-3 again.

So while it might seem a lot to lose our top two players in minutes and #1 and 4 in points (including the PG), neither one of them is close to what Bertsch was and we *only* were three games worse after she graduated. Konrad and Stobbart will be seniors and Turner just went for 22 in the BW title game as a sophomore.

I don't know who's going to step up next year to replace Hall and Trpcic but I feel pretty confident somebody will. Gross has raised expectations but that's a good spot to be in because it means you're doing a great job.

Great writeup. It's hard to actually keep track of all the different years now, especially considering we've had complete roster turnover since the first Splash Sisters championship.

One thought and possible correction though: since there's a blanket extra year of eligibility, I wonder if that means we will still consider Stobbart and Konrad as juniors (and Turner as a sophomore) in Fall -- something I'm sure the rest of the conference is thrilled about. Not sure how many people will actually take the extra year of eligibility when they've met graduation requirements down the line though.

The extra year due to the pandemic is creating some interesting scenarios. How does this affect recruiting and scholarship availability? Will Hall or Trypcic decide to stay and play another year? Of course, this is all assuming that the pandemic will be under control by then too.
There are a lot of unknowns...

I think the 2 previous times the women have been in it we were the 16 seed (men were a 16 and did the play in game before losing to #1 Kansas).

That 4th quarter was pretty interesting. You could almost see Turner's confidence growing, and it all started with a couple of drives. Hopefully she can keep that momentum going!

Looking at Irvine's forum -- they have pretty active WBB game threads -- it looks like their big takeaway from the game is that UCI couldn't match up with Stobbart and that created defensive problems everywhere for the small ball lineup they run. They settled on the conclusion that UCI needs to recruit simply better players to compete with Gross's lineups.

I'm wondering if the conference needs to have a serious look at how much they're supporting/willing to support their WBB programs with things like budgets for assistants/recruiting/facilities. Not sure Davis is vastly outspending everyone else right now, but there have been some nice Pavilion upgrades, the athletics center is on the way, and we have an unrivaled staff in the conference. If the other BWC teams are just funding WBB to the minimum for Title IX balancing purposes (no real evidence that this is the case, but the results indicate it might be) then they will have a very tough time catching up to UCD's momentum.

Might be months before we know and dependent on how the tournament run goes. Also wondering if there's some other factors like if Trpcic leaves and Hall thinks she might get more time running the point for WNBA prep purposes, etc.

UCD was a 15 seed in 2019 but really same difference. Very easy to argue that was an underseeding for a team that finished on a 21-1 streak in D1 play with some brutal margins of victory

I would be surprised to be seniors return. The women have been remarkable students as well as players and I’d guess they are on target to graduate and get on with the next stage of their lives.

^^ Ditto.

That could well be but both have stated that their decisions are dependent upon graduate school opportunities and the potential for playing pro. Trpcic wants to go to medical school and I believe that Hall originally talked about medical school as well. So I would imagine that their decisions would be dependent first and foremost about acceptance to medical schools if that's the case.

Realistically, I don't think it's highly likely that either of them would be selected in the WNBA draft. That leaves open playing abroad as a pro like so many other Aggies have done. Another year playing for the Ags as a graduate students might increase their stock in playing pro abroad if they choose that route also.

I agree with BGA and Zander. I am a little more optimistic about Hall’s WNBA chances, but only if she makes it at the point and she really does not have a lot of experience there. And then there’s the medical school issue. If Trpcic got into to UCD SOM could she play as a grad? Possible? Doubtful. Also she may want go to Med School in Canada where I assume the tuition is much lower than in the US. So if Hall plays a year at the point she improves her pro chances all around. Only puts off Med School option for a year. I am sure they both have Morgan’s cell number very handy for some quality advice. On a totally different point, I am struck by the number of quality Aussie women that are playing in the BW. Jen may want to take a working vacation down under to check this out for a Aggies.

Very, very cool. . . . Great bunch of gals!

Another quick hype video.

The Aggies moved up one spot in the NCAA D1 Women's Basketball rankings from #72 overall to #71.

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-women/d1/ncaa-womens-basketball-net-rankings

Urgh, not great for seeding. Technically speaking Ags reliant on conference tourney upsets and just plain bad conferences with autobids to avoid a 16 seed. Or the committee factoring in momentum and unique circumstances. The Hawaii loss hurt, Ags were into the 50-60 range before that.

UCSB Men, by comparison, made it to the 12 line with a staggering 54 in NET, which feels like about the highest I've ever seen a BWC team finish in NET/RPI.