Feb. 18: Despite loss to South Carolina, LSU’s NCAA projections basically unchanged | Womens Basketball

Eye on the Madness

Welcome to the third of our weekly looks at the LSU women’s basketball team’s NCAA Tournament projections and other related NCAA Tournament information as the Tigers roll toward Selection Sunday on March 15.

LSU’s NCAA Tournament projections

Charlie Crème, ESPN.com: 2 seed, Fort Worth Region 1 (Feb. 17)

Autumn Johnson, NCAA.com: 2 seed, Fort Worth Region 1 (Feb. 17)

Megan Gauer, HerHoopStats.com: 2 seed, Fort Worth Regional 1 (Feb. 10)

Connor Groel, CBSSports.com: 2 seed, Fort Worth Regional 1 (Feb. 17)

CollegeSportsMadness.com: 2 seed, Sacramento Regional 2 (Feb. 14)

NCAA Selection Committee tournament reveal: 2 seed, No. 8 overall, Fort Worth Regional (Feb. 14)

Keep an eye on …

The NCAA NET rankings. While LSU has lined up as the lowest regional No. 2 seed (because they’re in the top No. 1 UConn’s bracket in most projections), the Tigers still have a No. 5 NET ranking after Saturday’s 79-72 loss to South Carolina. To me, that means LSU is not out of contention for a No. 1 regional seed, but the Tigers likely must win out. That means taking their final four SEC regular-season games and winning the SEC Tournament. A tall order for sure, one that probably would require Texas and Vanderbilt to also falter. But if LSU could pull it off the selection committee would have to consider the Tigers for that last No. 1 seed.

LSU’s ‘nitty gritty’

The NCAA generates a “nitty gritty” report on each team considering these major factors (SOS numbers per WarrenNolan.com):

Record: 22-4, 8-4 SEC

NET ranking: 5

RPI ranking: 19

NET Strength of schedule (SOS): 55

NET Non-conference SOS: 306

AP poll: 7

USA Today coaches’ poll: 7

Quadrant 1 record (home 1-25 NET, neutral 1-35, away 1-45): 4-4

Quadrant 2 record (home 26-55, neutral 36-65, away 46-80): 4-0

Quadrant 3 record (home 56-90, neutral 66-105, away 81-130): 2-0

Quadrant 4 record (home 91-363, neutral 106-363, away 131-363): 12-0

NCAA Tournament calendar

Selection Sunday

7 p.m. March 15 (ESPN)

First Four

March 18-19: TBD (at top 16 seeds)

First and second rounds

March 20 and 22: TBD (at top 16 seeds)

March 21 and 23: TBD (at top 16 seeds)

Regional semifinals and finals*

March 27 and 29, March 28 and 30:

Fort Worth regionals: Dickies Arena

Sacramento regionals: Golden 1 Center

Women’s Final Four

April 3 and 5: Phoenix (Mortgage Matchup Center)

*-NOTE: There are only two regional sites in the NCAA women’s tournament compared to four in the men’s. Eight teams will advance to each site, four per regional, with two teams from each site advancing to the Women’s Final Four.

All games will be shown on ESPN networks, ABC and the ESPN app