Huskies Hope for a Ho-Hum Event

Undefeated, unchallenged and unabashedly the favorite to win the women’s NCAA tournament, that’s the University of Connecticut.

Whether this will make for an interesting tournament, that’s what will play out in the next three weeks.

When John Wooden’s UCLA teams were overwhelming favorites, there was always great drama in watching a Dayton, or some other unlikely challenger, come close to an upset.

So either we’ll have that--or a dull exercise in watching unappreciated greatness.

We already know what’s expected.

ESPN did a quick poll after the women’s draw was released. It asked who had the best chance of upsetting the 33-0 Huskies--Tennessee, Oklahoma, Duke, Stanford, or nobody.

Nobody was easily the top choice.

And a smart choice. The Huskies have won their 33 games by an average margin of 37 points.

“The fact UConn has four seniors in the lineup that are playing with great efficiency and great confidence, yes, I’m not surprised at that result,” Tennessee Coach Pat Summitt said. “Certainly strange things can happen in the postseason. Should that happen to UConn? The likelihood is not very strong. But they have to show up and play like everybody else and they have a huge target on them.

“But, yes, I view this tournament as UConn’s to lose.”

That can be a bad thing. It’s not good for national buzz or for TV ratings or for drawing the interest of the casual fan if UConn continues to win its tournament games by an average of 37 points.

Last year there was excitement created around women’s basketball because there was a fabulous tournament.

When a Midwest Catholic college, Xavier, upset Tennessee, people noticed. When Jackie Stiles, a pony-tailed gym rat with great court sense and a sweet shot, dragged Southwest Missouri State to the Final Four, people noticed. When Notre Dame broke the Tennessee-UConn dominance by winning its first title, and did it not by beating UConn or Tennessee but Purdue, people noticed.

Singular greatness can be a good thing.

What will get people to notice this tournament?

An upset of UConn.

What will get people talking about this tournament? How to beat UConn. Can UConn be beaten? Why can’t somebody beat UConn?

UCLA’s sustained greatness under Wooden was a good thing for the college game. Other teams wanted to get good enough to beat UCLA. Fans were created just because they wanted to root against UCLA.

Geno Auriemma, UConn’s demanding, dominating coach, said that UConn played “seven or eight teams this year that could have beaten us.” He said that with a straight face on national television, though he didn’t share which of those teams that was losing to him by 37 points were the ones he figured might beat UConn.

But if it seems this tournament is back to the same old, same old, that’s not totally true.

While UConn, the No. 1 seed in the Mideast Regional, is expected to romp, there does seem to be a bit of a guard change.

For only the third time in 15 years, Tennessee didn’t get a No. 1 seed. The Vols were slotted No. 2 in the Midwest region. As if that wasn’t enough of a slap in the face, the No. 1 seed in that region is Vanderbilt, Southeastern Conference rivals of the Vols.

Vanderbilt finished three games behind the Lady Vols in the SEC regular season but the teams split their league games and Vandy won the conference tournament.

“We were surprised to get a No. 2 seed,” Summitt said. “We had the No. 1 RPI and the toughest schedule in the country. I could tell our team was disappointed because they expected, and rightfully so, to get a No. 1 seed.”

The Lady Vols were upset by Louisiana State in an SEC tournament semifinal, leading Summitt to say that “this speaks to the amount of emphasis placed on conference tournaments.” If you’re looking for omens, in 1997 the Lady Vols were seeded No. 3 and won the championship; in 1987 the Lady Vols were seeded No. 2 and won the national championship.

For the first time since 1993, Louisiana Tech was not seeded among the top 16 teams. Oklahoma received a No. 1 seed for the first time. Things do change.

Conspicuous by their absence in the field are Pacific 10 teams. While the Pac-10 men placed six teams in the tournament, the women have only two.

And apparently the Pac-10 is so lightly regarded that a loss in the finals of the Pac-10 tournament to Arizona State cost 30-2 Stanford a No. 1 seed. The Cardinal is No. 2 in the West, behind Oklahoma. Arizona State, with the automatic bid, is the other Pac-10 school in the field.

This should be an embarrassment to the conference. While it’s nice that Southern California can produce talented players, it’s too bad they feel they have to travel across the country to do their best work in college.

It’s disappointing that Diana Taurasi, who played at Chino Don Lugo High, needed to head to UConn. It’s too bad that Loree Moore of Harbor City Narbonne High felt it necessary to head to Tennessee or that Santa Margarita High’s Venessa Ferragamo preferred Vanderbilt.

And there’s something wrong when only Pepperdine from Southern California made the tournament. No USC, no UCLA, no Long Beach State.

So now local women’s college basketball fans can understand how men’s college basketball fans around the country felt. Won’t somebody beat UConn, please?

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Diane Pucin can be reached at diane.pucin@latimes.com