Life looks good for Duke, less so for Tennessee

	RELATED • Duke, UConn, UNC, Tennessee bag No. 1s
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Last March the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Committee drew the ire of Tennessee coach Pat Summitt by rewarding her 28-4 Lady Vols with a No. 2 seed and a trip to the stacked Cleveland Regional, where they eventually fell to top-seeded North Carolina. ("A slap in your face," Summitt told her players of their seeding.)

Here's the good news for Summitt: Order has been restored in women's basketball this year. The top four seeds provided little drama. Duke was awarded the top seed overall, followed by Tennessee (the 17th time in 20 seasons the school has been a No. 1 seed), North Carolina and Connecticut.

Now here's where Summitt isn't going to be very happy: Her Lady Vols were placed in the Dayton Regional, which features Tennessee (No. 1 according to the RPI rankings), Maryland (No. 4), Oklahoma (No. 9) and Ohio State (No. 7).

"I thought Oklahoma was a No. 2 seed, I think Maryland's a No. 2 seed, I think Ohio State's a No. 3 seed," said Summitt. "That's my opinion, and it really doesn't matter. I can't imagine the other teams being very thrilled about it either. If I'm Ohio State, I'm like, a four seed? Oklahoma, a three seed? Both of those surprise me."

Life looks much easier for Duke, which has the top seed in the Greensboro Regional and should waltz into the Final Four in Cleveland without having to leave North Carolina for the first four games. Fellow ACC power North Carolina also has an easy road in Dallas. Connecticut and Stanford have a couple of stumbling blocks in the Fresno Regional, but it's walk in the park compared with Dayton.

If you're wondering who was No. 65 on the committee's list -- it had to choose 33 at-large bids -- NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Committee Judy Southard said there were nine teams on the board for the last spot. She confirmed that Texas and Hartford were among the schools. We leave them behind for now. Onto the breakdown.

Committee thumbs-up: At 26-7 and a runner-up in the Southeastern Conference tournament (they beat Tennessee), LSU deserved a No. 3, and the committee rewarded them, even amid the glare of coach Pokey Chatman's sudden resignation last week. Southard, a senior associate athletics director at LSU, said she was out of the room when her school's seeding was discussed. "Certainly with the departure of Coach Chatman from the program at this time, it was something that the committee had to consider," said Southard. "Based on the amount of time I was out of the room, they deliberated about it for quite a lengthy time." While it would have added cachet to the draw, the committee chose wisely by not inviting a disappointing Texas (18-14) team.