Lack of neutral sites still hampers tournament

MISSOULA, Mont. – Last season, the NCAA Women’s Basketball Committee began predetermining the sites for the women’s tournament games, rather than choosing them as part of their deliberations to seed the teams.

That move was made, in large part, to take away the huge home-court advantage some of the country’s premier programs were gaining by holding the early rounds at their facilities and to allow those places to better prepare for the events.

In this year’s Mideast Regional, the University of Montana successfully bid to be the host for first- and second-round games. The Grizzlies, the No. 12 seed in their own regional, thereby achieve a tremendous advantage.

University of Maine coach Sharon Versyp is thrilled her team, the No. 13 seed, has the chance to play 12th-ranked and No. 4 seed Texas Tech on a neutral court.

“We’re playing on a neutral floor and that’s huge,” Versyp said. “When people are playing on their own floor, they usually win.”

Despite its relatively low seeding, Montana plays No. 5 Louisiana Tech with a large partisan crowd behind it and in comfortable surroundings.

Texas Tech coach Marsha Sharp has been the beneficiary of hosting several early round games in the past. But she believes if that is going to be allowed, it should be based on merit.

“I’ve been on the record for two or three years that I’m an opponent of predetermined sites,” Sharp said. “If you’re gonna do it on home-court situations, it should be earned and not really a bid put in that you can buy.”

Even heading a program that would be a likely candidate to host (the Lady Raiders averaged 12,577 fans at home games this season), Sharp would like to see the NCAA move to all neutral-site games for the women’s tournament.

“It makes it a skewed, unfair tournament,” she said. “I think the quicker we can go neutral, the better off we’ll all be.”

No Coppenrath-like comeback

Some UMaine fans got a bit of a start Friday afternoon when they saw Texas Tech post player Cisti Greenwalt shooting around during the Lady Raiders’ practice session.

Greenwalt, a 6-foot-5 center who holds the school’s blocked shots record with 195, has been sidelined for the last month with a broken right ankle. Though wearing a splint on the ankle and moving gingerly, her mere presence on the court was enough to make people wonder whether a comeback reminiscent of last weekend’s showing by Vermont’s Taylor Coppenrath against the UMaine men’s team might be in the offing.

“She’s unavailable to us this week,” Sharp said. “We will play that by ear if we’re fortunate enough to stay in it, but we won’t have her this weekend.”

Dream venue

The UMaine women’s basketball team has the opportunity tonight to play in what appears to be a tremendous facility for women’s basketball.

Montana’s Dahlberg Arena and Adams Center is an aesthetically pleasing and functional venue for the Mideast Regional.

The arena, which seats 7,321, features steep seating on all four sides. The majority of the spectators are treated to comfortable theater-style seats, although one end section is all bleachers.

The seats come right up close to the court on all sides, which gives the arena a cozy (and likely intimidating) feel for the Grizzlies’ opponents. A good-sized Daktronics “Griz Vision” video scoreboard located above the bleachers is another nice feature.

One of the main hallways in the building, which also houses lots of offices, is home to an impressive Hall of Fame wall highlighting the accomplishments of Montana athletes.

Black Bear tracks

UMaine coach Sharon Versyp spent a few minutes during the early portion of Friday afternoon’s practice at Dahlberg Arena chatting with the ESPN2 broadcast crew that will call tonight’s game. … The Bears, after going through the motions at their mandatory hour-long workout at Montana, departed the building for a more game-specific practice at an undisclosed location.