Bowling Green

Jennifer Roos Takes the Helm at Bowling Green State

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications) – Bowling Green State University looked within to fill the vacancy created by the departure of women's basketball head coach Curt Miller, a six-time Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year, who was tapped to take the reins at Indiana on March 28 of this year.

2012 Full Court Mid-Major All-American Teams: These Players Can Compete with Anyone

With additional reporting by Full Court Mid-Major Columnist Paul White and publisher Lee Michaelson.

Mid-major tournament report: 15 mid-major leagues head into final weekend of tournament action

Eight mid-major conferences have already crowned their new tournament champions. Fifteen more are headed into their final weekend of play.

Bubble Wrap III 2011: Week of March 12, 2011 - Final Wrap, Part II

This addition completes our article Bubble Wrap III 2011: Week of March 13, 2011 -- Final Wrap for those readers whose browsers do not support our article body extension. It includes locks and bubble teams for the PAC-10, Southeastern, Sun Belt, West Coast and Western Athletic Conferences.

Bubble Wrap III 2011: Week of March 13, 2011 -- Final Wrap

It's that time of year again! With conference tournaments wrapped up, March Madness is right around the corner. Full Court analyst Jim Carson is back once more to help with his annual "Bubble Wrap," a perennial favorite of Full Court subscribers, to help sort out who's likely to join that envied field of 64 come Selection Monday.

Unlike the men's field, 30 of the 64 berths in the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament field are reserved for the conference champions (automatic bids). All but one of of those automatic bids was determined in the conference tournaments that transpired across the country over the past two weeks. The last was sewn up last week when Princeton nailed down the Ivy League regular-season championship, moving them off the bubble and into one of the automatic conference bids. (The Ivies do not hold a conference tournament, so their regular-season champ gets the automatic bid.)

That leaves 33 "at-large" berths for the NCAA's Selection Committee to allot to the worthiest teams in the nation. Over the past several weeks, Jim Carson brought you the first two installments in his series of "Bubble Wraps" -- analyses of which teams have likely already wrapped up at large bids through their bodies of work to date, and which teams remain "on the bubble" with a legitimate chance at an at-large bid.

Obviously, until the bracket is formally announced by the committee on March 14 before a national TV audience, anyone's predictions of the field will contain a fair dose of speculation. Still, some outcomes are (far) more probable than others.

Now that we know the conference tournament champions, we've also seen a number of the teams we previously regarded as "locks" -- or even as mere "bubbles" -- secure their invitations to the Big Dance. Of the 31 Division I NCAA Conferences, there are now seven -- the ACC (5), the A-10 (1), the Big East (6), the Big Ten (3), the Big XII (5), the Pac-10 (1) and the SEC (3) -- that we view as having one or more teams whose success at this point in this season has been such that they can safely be considered "locks" for the tournament. In all, Jim identifies 24 teams in those eight conferences who, he believes, have already locked up their tournament berths.

By simple subtraction, that leaves nine at-large berths still up for grabs. Last week, Jim identified 40 teams, in 16 conferences, with teams still considered on the "bubble," down from our first installment of Bubble Wrap, as some locked their places, others have dropped out of contention, and still others have played their way into consideration. This week, we see the number of teams remaining on the bubble is down to 28, spread across 13 conferences -- the ACC (1), A-10 (6), Big East (3), Big Ten (3), Big XII (1), Colonial (1), Conference USA (1), Missouri Valley (2), Mountain West (2), PAC-10 (3), SEC (3), Sun Belt (1) and the WAC (1) -- vying for those nine remaining berths.

Obviously, the outlook for some of those 28 teams appears much better than it does for others; as Jim explains, for some, the prospects are next to nil. But for now, we are still spreading our nets wide, including any team that can make its case for a bid with a straight face.

Last year, for those keeping track, Jim was spot on with his tournament predictions by the "Final Wrap." We'll soon know how he fared this year.

For now, let's take a look at women's college basketball's 31 automatics, the 24 locks, and the 28 remaining bubble teams.

Bubble Wrap II 2011: Week of February 28, 2011 - Part II

This addition completes our article Bubble Wrap 2011: Week of February 22, 2011 for those readers whose browsers do not support our article body extension. It includes locks and bubble teams for the Southeastern, Sun Belt, West Coast and Western Athletic Conferences.

Bubble Wrap II 2011: Week of February 28, 2011

It's that time of year again! With the regular season over in many conferences and nearly at an end in the rest, March Madness is on the horizon. It's time to sort out who is likely to join that envied field of 64 come NCAA tournament time, and Full Court analyst Jim Carson is back once more to help with his annual "Bubble Wrap," a perennial favorite of Full Court subscribers.

Unlike the men's field, 31 of the 64 berths in the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament field are reserved for the conference champions (automatic bids), all but one of which will be determined in the conference tournaments that will be held over the next two weeks. Last week, Princeton sewed up the Ivy League regular-season championship, moving them off the bubble and into one of the automatic conference bids. (The Ivies do not hold a conference tournament, so their regular-season champ gets the automatic bid.)

That leaves 33 "at-large" berths for the NCAA's Selection Committee to allot to the worthiest teams in the nation. Last week, Jim Carson brought you the first in his series of "Bubble Wraps" -- analyses of which teams have likely already wrapped up at large bids through their bodies of work to date, and which teams remain "on the bubble" with a legitimate chance at an at-large bid.

Obviously, until the bracket is formally announced by the committee on March 14 before a national TV audience, anyone's predictions of the field will contain a fair dose of speculation. Still, some outcomes are (far) more probable than others.

Of the 31 Division I NCAA Conferences, we now see eight -- the ACC (6), the A-10 (2), the Big East (7), the Big Ten (4), the Big XII (4), the Horizon (1), the Pac-10 (2) and the SEC (4) -- that have one or more teams whose success at this point in this season has been such that they can safely be considered "locks" for the tournament, as Temple, Rutgers, Louisville, Iowa State and Green Bay join the ranks previously identified as NCAA tournament locks. In all, Jim identifies 30 teams in those eight conferences who, he believes, have already locked up their tournament berths.

If one simply subtracted the 30 "locks" from the 33 at-large berths available, one would wind up with just three at-large bids still up for grabs. But it is reasonably safe to assume that one of the locks in each of those eight conferences will wind up taking its conference title and advancing to the tournament as an automatic bid, thus opening another berth to remaining bubble teams. So at least for now, we'll add eight more berths back into the at-large pot for a grand total of 11 places still available for "bubble teams" who are still hoping to convince the Selection Committee with their performances over the final weeks of the season.

Last week, Jim identified 43 teams spread through 18 conferences across the country as still on the bubble, vying for what were then 15 tournament spots not already locked up. This week, the number of bubble teams is down to 40, in 16 conferences, as some have locked their places, others have dropped out of contention, and still others have played their way into consideration. For now, we are still spreading our nets wide, including any team that can make its case for a bid with a straight face. Over the final week of the regular season -- and on into the conference tournaments -- we'll be refining those lists as results push various teams off the bubble, either into a lock or out of contention altogether. (Last year, for those keeping track, Jim was spot on with his tournament predictions by the "Final Wrap.")

So let's take a look at this week's 30 locks and 40 bubbles.

Bubble Wrap 2011: Week of February 22, 2011 - Part II

This addition completes our article Bubble Wrap 2011: Week of February 22, 2011 for those readers whose browsers do not support our article body extension. It includes locks and bubble teams for the Southeastern, Sun Belt, West Coast and Western Athletic Conferences.

Bubble Wrap 2011: Week of February 22, 2011

It's that time of year again! The regular season is winding down, March Madness is on the horizon, and armchair pundits unwilling to wait for Selection Monday have already begun to read the tea leaves to cipher out who will be part of that envied field of 64 come NCAA tournament time. And Full Court analyst Jim Carson is back once more to help them with his annual "Bubble Wrap," a perennial favorite of Full Court subscribers.

The NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament field is ever-so-slightly different from that of the men. In the women's game, 31 of the 64 NCAA Tournament berths are reserved for the conference champions (automatic bids), all but one of which will be determined in the conference tournaments that are just around the corner. (The Ivy League does not hold a conference tournament, instead sending its regular-season champion to the Big Dance as its automatic bid recipient.)

That leaves 33 "at-large" berths for the NCAA's Selection Committee to allot to the worthiest teams in the nation.

Until the bracket is formally announced by the committee on March 14 before a national TV audience, anyone's predictions of the field will contain a fair dose of speculation. Still, some outcomes are (far) more probable than others. What kind of implosion would it take at this point of the season, for example, for Connecticut or Stanford to work their way out of a tournament berth?

It is in that vein that Jim Carson (who began this exercise when his daughter was a player at Clemson and he was trying to 'suss out her tournament prospects) brings you the first in this year's series of "Bubble Wraps." Of the 31 Division I NCAA Conferences, we see seven -- the ACC (6), the A-10 (1), the Big East (5), the Big Ten (4), the Big XII (3), the Pac-10 (2) and the SEC (4) -- that have one or more teams whose success at this point in this season has been such that they can safely be considered "locks" for the tournament. In all, Jim identifies 25 teams in those seven conferences who, he believes, have already locked up their tournament berths.

If one simply subtracted the 25 "locks" from the 33 at-large berths available, one would wind up with just eight at-large bids still up for grabs. But it is reasonably safe to assume that at least one of the locks in each of those seven conferences will wind up taking its conference title and advancing to the tournament as an automatic bid, thus opening another berth to remaining bubble teams. So at least for now, we'll add seven more berths back into the at-large pot for a grand total of 15 places still available for "bubble teams" who are still hoping to convince the Selection Committee with their performances over the final weeks of the season.

Here, then, is this year's first cut at the 25 locks and the 43 teams (spread through 18 conferences across the country) that we view is still "on the bubble" vying for one of the 15 tournament spots not already locked up. For now, we've spread our nets wide, including any team that can make its case for a bid with a straight face. Over the final week of the regular season -- and on into the conference tournaments -- we'll be refining those lists as results push various teams off the bubble, either into a lock or out of contention altogether. (Last year, for those keeping track, Jim was spot on with his tournament predictions by the "Final Wrap.")

Enjoy!

Full Court's Preseason Mid-Major Top 25 -- The Pursuit of Excellence Outside the Spotlight

Over the next several months you will hear the names Tina Charles, Maya Moore and Jayne Appel often. But while it may come as news to some in Storrs, Knoxville and Palo Alto, there is actually a great deal of good womens basketball played in far-flung places like Brookings, Spokane and Cincinnati. The six major NCAA Division I conferences receive all the publicity but there are some excellent players who chose life away from the spotlight that attends the NCAA's biggest women's basketball programs. Some of those players were underestimated -- they weren't considered big enough or fast enough for the major colleges during the high school recruiting sweepstakes; some flew under the radar during their high school years; others went to major schools first but didnt find the atmosphere to their liking and a few simply chose to play away from the brightest lights.

Still, week-in and week-out these players have turned in outstanding performances that are deserving of much more credit than most of them are ever likely to receive. In an attempt to rectify that injustice at least a bit, Full Court Press is pleased to introduce our Mid-Major Preseason Player of the Year, Alysha Clark of Middle Tennessee State, and to present this year's preseason list of the Full Court's Top 25 Players from the Mid-Majors, broadly defined here to include all Division I schools outside of the six major conferences: