BATON ROUGE – Unless LSU women’s basketball got blown out on its home floor, the result of the marquee matchup with South Carolina likely wasn’t going to affect the Tigers’ March Madness tournament bracketology much.
The fact that the now No. 7-ranked Tigers (22-4, 8-4 SEC) went toe-to-toe with Dawn Staley and the No. 3 Gamecocks in the 79-72 defeat, in front of a sellout crowd, was as much an affirmation of how good this LSU team can be and where it should sit in the pecking order among women’s college basketball’s best this season.
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With four games remaining in the regular season, Kim Mulkey and company have a couple more opportunities to capture Quad 1 victories before the Southeastern Conference Tournament starts next month. It starts Thursday night on the road at No. 17 Ole Miss (20-6, 7-4), who is right behind LSU in the SEC standings.
MORE LSU WBB COVERAGE LSU to ‘look in mirror’ after another close loss to South Carolina
Let’s look at where LSU stands in the latest NCAA Tournament projections.
LSU women’s basketball bracketology: Latest projections
Despite the close loss to South Carolina, LSU remains on the No. 2 seed line in the latest ESPN bracketology. But there has been some movement, however. For much of this season, the Tigers have been predicted to be in one of the Sacramento regions, matched up with either UCLA or South Carolina as the No. 1 seed.
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But in Charlie Creme’s latest bracket, he has LSU as the 2-seed in Forth Worth Region 1 with No. 1 overall seed UConn at the top. This projection makes for a possible compelling matchup in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. LSU would open against No. 15 High Point, but there would be a chance Mulkey’s team would see Hannah Hildalgo and Notre Dame in the second round as the No. 7 seed. No. 10 Princeton rounds out the four teams projected to be at the Baton Rouge Regional.
LSU women’s basketball NET ranking
LSU still sits No. 5 in the NCAA’s NET ranking this week. The Tigers have been top 5 in the NET for the last several week, and nothing has changed, but they could be in danger of sliding back as they are now the only team in the top 8 that does have a winning record in Quad 1 games at 4-4. The rest of the top 5 in the NET rankings is UConn at No. 1, UCLA at No. 2, South Carolina at No. 3 and Texas No. 4.
Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Latest LSU women’s basketball bracketology after South Carolina loss
