March 1, 2006

It’s the NCAA’s version of the Rorschach Test. Take a look at South Carolina (17-10 overall, 7-7 SEC), and which inkblot do you see? An NCAA Tournament team? Or a team not quite strong enough for the Big Dance?

That’s the uncertainty accompanying the Gamecocks, as they head to North Little Rock, Ark., for the SEC Tournament. Running the table would erase all doubt. But if not that, how many wins would it take to get in? One? Two?

For bubble teams, usually you can get a read on this. But nobody – and I mean nobody ¬- seems to know for Carolina.

There is no shortage of tea leaves to read, either. If you believe what you read on the Internet, then the Gamecocks don’t have NCAA credentials right now. Yet since the women’s field expanded to 64 teams in 1994, only twice has the NCAA not invited an SEC team with a 7-7 conference record.

In both cases – LSU in 1998 and Alabama in 2002 – those teams puttered to losing records over the final weeks of the regular season, and flamed out in the first round of the SEC Tournament. The NCAA always measures how strong a team finishes its regular season. Carolina, one of the hottest teams in the SEC, has won 8 of its last 10.

Conference realignment, though, may have clouded the picture. Does the Big East, now bloated to 16 schools, deserve 8 bids as CSTV.com suggests, and the 12-team SEC only 6? The NCAA rates the SEC as a stronger conference than the Big East. It’s all hard to say.

You’ll also hear some caterwauling about the Gamecocks’ RPI, or Ratings Percentage Index. That’s a measure of a team’s strength of schedule, and how a team fares against that schedule.

Carolina’s NCAA RPI is #80. Critics will point to USC’s non-conference games against Bethune-Cookman, Savannah State, and S.C. State. Yet the Gamecocks have also played non-conference games against nationally-ranked Purdue, Texas, and Minnesota.

“Our RPI is the frustrating this thing for us. I think if the NCAA wants the best teams and I think that is what they look to do, then we would get invited,” head coach Susan Walvius said in a teleconference Monday. “I think they should look at the teams we did play and not our RPI.”

How games against B-CC, Savannah State, and S.C. State outweigh games against Top-25 schools in the Gamecocks’ RPI is beyond me. One hopes the NCAA selection committee trusts its CSI – Common Sense Index – more than its RPI on Selection Monday.

So the inkblots head to Little Rock, their NCAA Tournament fortunes at stake. Maybe one thing is certain for Carolina: winning removes all uncertainty. See you in Arkansas.

One Sobbing Moment: Great moment on Senior Day, when the Colonial Center played both the American national anthem and the Russian national anthem for senior Olga Gritsaeva and her Mom. O.G., your tears were well-deserved.

Eat Your Heart Out, Vegas: Never have I seen – or eaten – a better buffet than the spread at the Loews’ Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn., Sunday. Shrimp quesadillas, spinach salad, country potatoes, fruit, crab legs, chocolate cheesecake – it was unreal. Did I mention it was 10:15 in the morning?

Hats Off: The Loews once again featured one of my favorite hotel incidentals – a cowboy hat in each closet. Alas, I still looked like a pilgrim more than a cowboy when I tried it on.

She Also Enjoys Wrestling Grizzly Bears: One of the more interesting personal facts about a player can be found in Auburn’s media guide. Buried amongst the usual media guide minutiae, Auburn guard Whitney Boddie lists one of her hobbies as “chasing tornadoes.”