ND beats OU in OT; Tennessee next

#5-seed Notre Dame and #4-seed Oklahoma -- playing in West Lafayette, Indiana -- are tied 72-72 in overtime in the second round of the women's tournament. Winner gets Tennessee in the Sweet Sixteen. GO IRISH!!

UPDATE: IRISH WIN!! Notre Dame is Sweet 16-bound!! Wooo!! GOOOO IRISH, BEEEEAT LADY VOLS!!

I'll update the pools in the morning.

Comments

[NDLauren]

A very nice win indeed! Charel Allen managed to score 35 points! Bring on the Vols- hopefully the Irish can at least make it competitive.

[JD]

In men's basketball news, the NCAA has ruled that the dunk at the end of the UCLA-A&M game didn't count.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jtNepGspaFOstLn7-8SPCAjroH0wD8VJDRR00

[Jim Hu]

Tennessee is probably happier to play ND, just because they won't have to play OU in Oklahoma City. Now it's more of a neutral court.

So if you guys knock off Tennessee, and the Lady Ags take care of Duke...

[Jay Johnson]

I don't think that the Lady Vols were that concerned about playing anyone on their (de facto) home court. The ran Purdue by almost 30 on Purdue's actual home court last night.

BTW, Pat Summitt won her 100th NCAA TOURNAMENT game last night. The first coach on either men's or women's hoops to accomplish that feat.

Go Lady Vols!

[Jim Hu]

I suspect that Pat Summitt is a good enough coach to be concerned about home court advantages; she's also gotten where she is by knowing how to prepare her teams to deal with them.

Nevertheless, do you think she has no preference about where they play, esp. as we go deeper in the tourney? I don't. Also

The atmosphere inside Purdue's home venue was just what Summitt wanted. She applauded the loud crowd that filled the lower bowl of Mackey Arena with a mix mostly of Tennessee orange and Purdue's old gold and black, dueling bands and an energetic crowd.

The sentence can be parsed different ways, so I'm not sure whether the author is actually saying that the Vols fans outnumbered the home fans. Sounds like one way to neutralize the home court is to have fans who travel well.

OU has had pretty good crowds for women's bball, but they're out. If the Lady Vols end up playing the Ags in the elite 8, I won't be surprised if the Vols fans outnumber the A&M fans in Oklahoma City - support for the team here is not as good as it should be, IMO.

BTHO Duke first!