Connecticut seems a shoo-in to win women’s title

The NCAA women’s basketball tournament field of 63 eventual losers and one national champion was announced Monday, not that anyone was waiting to fill out the championship slot in their brackets.

Nope. That ink had long dried. More like: Which teams will Connecticut flatten on its way to that game, and then who gets court-level seats to the Huskies’ postgame net-cutting ceremony in San Antonio?

Stanford, top seeded in the Sacramento Regional, seems the best contender. This season’s Cardinal (31-1) is one of the best teams the Pacific 10 Conference has produced. Plus Stanford last proved Connecticut is mortal, beating the Huskies in the 2008 Final Four.

But Connecticut, which earned the tournament’s top overall seeding and will play in the Dayton Regional, has been immortal since then. The Huskies (33-0) are so selfish. They won’t share victories with opponents. Only losses. They’ve dealt 72 of those in a row to foes. Who wants to play with them?

And if the Huskies win it all this year, they’ll become the first team to have consecutive undefeated seasons and national titles, which is probably the last remaining record Geno Auriemma’s Huskies haven’t swiped.

If the Cardinal doesn’t make it to the title game in San Antonio to threaten Connecticut, then Nebraska (30-1), top seeded in the Kansas City Regional, is considered the next best contender, although Texas A&M (25-7), seeded No. 2 in the Sacramento Regional, is a considerable sleeper.

That’s assuming Pat Summit’s Tennessee Volunteers (30-2), top seeded in the Memphis Regional, doesn’t knock Connecticut from its perch in what could be a heated Final Four semifinal showdown.

Even still, Connecticut is the surest bet this side of postcard-perfect Southern California weather, which is exactly what UCLA’s Nikki Caldwell has to abandon as the Bruins (24-8), seeded eighth in the Kansas City Regional, heads to Minneapolis to face North Carolina State (20-13) on Sunday.

The Bruins had hoped for a higher seeding, but Caldwell said the selection committee “may have seen our game” against Stanford on Sunday, a 70-46 Cardinal win.

Caldwell, selected the Pac-10 coach of the year, isn’t pouting. Her team advanced to the tournament after not making it last season, and the second-year coach faces a fellow Tennessee alum in Wolfpack Coach Kellie Harper.

“I’m actually watching their game against Duke right now,” she said. “They play hard. They’re going to man-to-man defense and get after you defensively.”

Should it beat the Wolfpack, UCLA probably would face top-seeded Nebraska, and with a lineup that features two juniors, two sophomores and a freshman, the Bruins would be lucky to move past that second-round game.

Aside from making the tournament, the other good news for UCLA fans is that the Bruins appear to have knocked USC out of it. The Trojans (19-12) fell, 59-53, in the semifinals of the Pac-10 women’s tournament Saturday, and USC first-year Coach Michael Cooper said one more win might have done it.

“The vital number for us is always going to be 20, 21 wins,” he said, adding that home losses to Oregon and Washington State that book-ended a five-game slide wounded his team’s chances.

Yet, USC’s future seems solid. It will have back three of its top five scorers, including sophomores Ashley Corral (15.1 points per game) and Briana Gilbreath (12.7). For Cooper, it hurts, though. He compared being left out of the tournament to his first loss at the Boston Garden when he played for the Lakers.

“Same kind of feeling,” he said.

Cooper said he would probably pass on an NIT invitation, but he’s keeping that option open.

The Southland’s only other participating team is UC Riverside, which is seeded No. 16 in the Sacramento Regional and plays Stanford on Saturday. But just making the tournament is a boon for the Highlanders, who started the season 3-12 before winning 14 of their last 17, including winning the Big West Conference tournament.

“It speaks volumes about the character of our players,” Coach John Margaritis said.

Still, he is without delusions of grandeur.

“[Stanford is] a Final Four team, maybe a championship team, and we recognize that. It’s a great challenge,” he said.

baxter.holmes@latimes.com