 Assistant Coach Laurie Byrd
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2005 NCAA Women’s Tournament
Assistant Coach Laurie Byrd Makes Her Predictions
Like many sports fan across the country, Laurie Byrd has become a part of the madness, “March Madness,” that is. As a key member of the Detroit Shock’s collegiate scouting team, it is Byrd’s job to closely follow women’s college basketball. Now that the regular season has come to a close, everyone has their own predictions about which teams will excel in the tournament and which may fall victim to an early round upset. The Women’s NCAA Tournament begins this weekend and culminates with the championship game on April 5 in Indianapolis. Laurie recently took a time-out from her scouting duties to tell us her predictions for the upcoming tournament.
On sleeper schools: We all know that strange things can happen in one-game elimination tournaments. This year’s women’s NCAA tournament is no exception; almost everyone has a chance to win. “Parity this year is unbelievable. There are a lot of sleepers in each of the regions,” Byrd said. While the top seeded teams are all very strong, Byrd believes that teams in the middle will put up a fight, as well. “Five, four, six [seeds], those are the teams that are going to scare you,” she says, “Florida State (a 6th seed), they’re a very scrappy team and Kansas State (a 4th seed) has veteran leadership. TCU (a 7th seed) has really been playing great basketball. Even though Minnesota is a third seed, you can’t count them out. I would consider them a sleeper.”
On Michigan State: Byrd also gave praise to the Michigan State Spartans, who received a top seeding for the first time in school history. “MSU scares you too because their long overdue, they’ve been playing well. I think it’s going to make a difference how long they’ve been sitting, because [the Big 10] Tournament was early. With Coach P (Joanne P. McCallie), they’re going to be ready to play, she does a great job preparing her team.”
On the Chattanooga Regional: “I have LSU coming out of Chattanooga. Chattanooga is a tough region. If you look at the players and look at the teams, you have Duke and Houston, you have Texas and Georgia, a good, young team, Penn State, too. They’ve got some good teams in that region.”
On the Tempe Regional: “I have North Carolina coming out of the Tempe.”
On the Philadelphia Regional: “Philly is a hard one for me. I got Tennessee, but Rutgers or Ohio State could easily come out of there, too. Even though Ohio State got beat in the Big 10, who’s going to stop the big kid? [Ohio State center Jessica] Davenport is unbelievable, and she’s only going to get better. I look at [Tennessee head coach] Pat Summit and what she’s done in the past and they’ve been playing well up until this point. Now that they’re playing team basketball, they’re going to be hard to beat.”
On the Kansas City Regional: “I look at Michigan State or Stanford coming out of Kansas City. You can never count [Connecticut Head Coach] Geno [Auriemma] out either. Connecticut could be dangerous, too.”
While Laurie had a difficult time deciding on a women’s Final Four, she did have a prediction about one of the favorites in the men’s tournament, “I think somewhere down the line [Illinois] is going to get upset. I could be wrong, but if [Dee] Brown doesn’t get on, they’re going to end up losing early.”
On sleeper schools: We all know that strange things can happen in one-game elimination tournaments. This year’s women’s NCAA tournament is no exception; almost everyone has a chance to win. “Parity this year is unbelievable. There are a lot of sleepers in each of the regions,” Byrd said. While the top seeded teams are all very strong, Byrd believes that teams in the middle will put up a fight, as well. “Five, four, six [seeds], those are the teams that are going to scare you,” she says, “Florida State (a 6th seed), they’re a very scrappy team and Kansas State (a 4th seed) has veteran leadership. TCU (a 7th seed) has really been playing great basketball. Even though Minnesota is a third seed, you can’t count them out. I would consider them a sleeper.”
On Michigan State: Byrd also gave praise to the Michigan State Spartans, who received a top seeding for the first time in school history. “MSU scares you too because their long overdue, they’ve been playing well. I think it’s going to make a difference how long they’ve been sitting, because [the Big 10] Tournament was early. With Coach P (Joanne P. McCallie), they’re going to be ready to play, she does a great job preparing her team.”
On the Chattanooga Regional: “I have LSU coming out of Chattanooga. Chattanooga is a tough region. If you look at the players and look at the teams, you have Duke and Houston, you have Texas and Georgia, a good, young team, Penn State, too. They’ve got some good teams in that region.”
On the Tempe Regional: “I have North Carolina coming out of the Tempe.”
On the Philadelphia Regional: “Philly is a hard one for me. I got Tennessee, but Rutgers or Ohio State could easily come out of there, too. Even though Ohio State got beat in the Big 10, who’s going to stop the big kid? [Ohio State center Jessica] Davenport is unbelievable, and she’s only going to get better. I look at [Tennessee head coach] Pat Summit and what she’s done in the past and they’ve been playing well up until this point. Now that they’re playing team basketball, they’re going to be hard to beat.”
On the Kansas City Regional: “I look at Michigan State or Stanford coming out of Kansas City. You can never count [Connecticut Head Coach] Geno [Auriemma] out either. Connecticut could be dangerous, too.”
While Laurie had a difficult time deciding on a women’s Final Four, she did have a prediction about one of the favorites in the men’s tournament, “I think somewhere down the line [Illinois] is going to get upset. I could be wrong, but if [Dee] Brown doesn’t get on, they’re going to end up losing early.”