Day 8 (deja vu)

Tonight seemed to be the opposite of last night’s fourth round, with the blowout up first and the surprise upset second.

UConn just dismantled Duke from top to bottom. I knew the Huskies would win, but I didn’t guess the score would be 75-40. Maya Moore’s 3000th point was the icing on the cake for UConn.

Like last night’s takedown, Texas A&M’s upset of Baylor surprised me a bit. (It always surprises me when a team actually does what they’re capable of doing). But after eight losses to the Bears, the ninth time was the charm for the Aggies, and in the biggest arena – over 11,000 fans. Like Notre Dame did to Tennessee last night, A&M lead Baylor the entire game.

So now we have Notre Dame set to play UConn on Sunday and Stanford to face Texas A&M, and again, I feel like I’m in “Groundhog Day.” In the Pac-10 tournament a few weeks ago, Cal upset Arizona State to advance to the semifinal, and Arizona upended USC on the other side of the bracket. The Bears and Cats each earned the privilege of playing the conference top dogs, UCLA and Stanford.

And both teams got their butts kicked.

So here’s what I’m wondering: will Stanford and UConn make their opponents look like high school teams, or will we really have a game or two? Of course I’m hoping for the latter. This has been one of the wildest tournaments in years…..and I love it.

Amazing Brittney Griner photo from tonight, courtesy of hoopfeed.

Baylor’s Kim Mulkey explains why she likes to coach.

Nice piece on the Ogwumikes.