Bracket Busters

Here are five intriguing matchups to watch.

FIRST ROUND

No. 6 Colorado vs. No. 11 UC Santa Barbara (at Santa Barbara) A showdown of two of the nation's fop post players, CU's Tera Bjorklund and UCSB's Lindsay Taylor.

No. 4 Texas Tech vs. No. 13 Maine (at Missoula) Banged-up Lady Raiders have lost three of their last four while Black Bears have won 19 of last 20.

No. 5 Florida vs. No. 12 New Mexico (at Albuquerque) Lobos have best scoring defense in country (50.8 ppg) and loudest home court.

SECOND ROUND

No. 6 Stanford vs. No. 3 Oklahoma (at Tempe) Pac-10 champs have plenty of motivation: a low seed and an OU foul that took out point guard Susan Borchardt (ACL) three years ago.

No. 7 Auburn vs. No. 2 Connecticut (at Bridgeport) If it comes down to rebounding, the edge goes to the Lady Tigers, who pull down 42.2 boards per game compared with the Huskies' 39.8.