 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.�