The Avenue's Quick Hits

*As much of a savant of women's hoops that I am, I had no idea that WNBA legend and former USC great Cynthia Cooper (now Cynthia Cooper-Dyke) was coaching at the collegiate level. Cooper-Dyke has led Prairie View A&M into the tournament in just her second season. Needless to say, any BCS school would love to have a big name come join their staff as coach and that might be just what happens with all of the openings out there...

*Cincinnati coach Laurie Pirtle saw the writing on the wall and resigned after 21 seasons at the helm. Pirtle never made any significant accomplishments in terms of tournament runs, only advancing to the second round once, but was a mainstay at UC (more of a sign that the administration didn't really care about the state of women's hoops.) Now that UC is in the Big East, though, it seems they might be taking it a little more seriously and might attract someone to build that program up...

As The Coaching Turns

With all the off-the-court happenings, GalHoopsAvenue loves to guess and speculate what might happen in the landscape of college coaching. Here's a road map to see the coaching domino's that might play out following the NCAA Tournament:

#1 LSU (Bob Starkey has said he doesn't want it. No way Carla Berry has a chance. The University will want a fresh start to clear the air. Our guess: Kurt Budke gets the nod thanks to his turnaround in no time at Oklahoma State. Budke is formerly LaTech's coach who left for the BCS, but the Big 12 can't hold a candlestick to the money and visibility of the SEC. Budke is a rising star and would completely provide a fresh look to the LSU program. Let's hope he keeps Starkey on board.)

#2 Florida (Jeremy Foley wants a national title in women's basketball and who wouldn't have thought Carolyn Peck could get it done? So the bar is set pretty high. Our guess: Kim Mulkey will be lured to the bright lights of the SEC and a paycheck between $500-600K.)

#3 Baylor (Since the Mulkster will leave for Florida and all that money, here is another high profile job that will open up. Our guess: Baylor will secure associate head coach Karen Aston before Texas can grab her. She is one of the next coaching greats and will stay put in Waco.)

#4 Texas (With coaching legend Conradt gone and Texas' first choice in Aston staying at Baylor, Texas will still keep it in the family. Our guess: Nell Fortner, who played for Conradt and has big name recognition will leave the SEC for the Big 12, where she will fit in a lot better.)

#5 Auburn (This will open up yet another SEC job. Our guess: Tom Collen will finally get his shot in the SEC. Remember, he was to be Vandy's head coach before a resume gaffe led to his dismissal before he even started. He is one of the coaching stars that can be lured away from the Big East to the powerful SEC.)

#6 Arkansas (Speaking of SEC, the Razorbacks rid themselves of Susie Gardner after four forgettable years and will seek the glory days of the Gary Blair era. Our guess: Pam Borton is sick of the freezing cold in Minnesota and will take her great coaching wiles into the SEC.)

#7 Louisville (Since Tom Cullen is leaving for the SEC, this mid-tier job will be open and is a great starter job for some assistant waiting in the wings to start their career, but maybe Louisville wants to build up women's hoops like they have football and men's hoops. Our guess: Carolyn Peck gets another chance right away. Despite what Florida thinks Louisville believes Peck can challenge Geno and C. Viv!)

#8 Oklahoma State (Back to Budke's old job. He laid the foundation for an upstart program in Stillwater, making the NCAA Tournament in just year two. Our guess: OSU wants consistency and promotes associate head coach Jim Littell.)

#9 Michigan (With Cheryl Burnett's resignation after just four years, this program has yet to live up to its potential. Our guess: Look for the nation's hottest young coach from Bowling Green, a mere 40 minutes away from Ann Arbor, to take over this program. Curt Miller all ready will have a successful recruiting pipeline and it is a perfect fit.)

#10 Minnesota (Since Pam Borton will go to Arkansas to get away from the frigid conditions in Minnesota, this plum Big Ten job will be open. Our guess: Kevin McHuff uses his A-10 championship clout to get a nice, cushy job in a BCS conference. McHuff a coach on the rise will be leaving behind a future superstar in Amber Harris, but maybe she will sweeten the deal by going with him to Minnesota.)

Other coaches who should be snatched up:

Pokey Chatman: Obviously she is scandal-plagued, but the right PR and a mea culpa and everything will be forgiven eventually. She had sex with a player, I know, but it's not like she did something against the law, just against ethical practices, which is different. Chatman is way too young and way too talented not to be given a second chance. While I don't expect a major school to face the media backlash of hiring her, a small school looking for a chance at success might want to consider it after everything dies down.

Gail Valley: Maybe she wants to be an assistant forever and that's fine, but if she doesn't than your program, whatever it is, should try to get her. You don't think that Coach G is personally recruiting all these superstars do you?

Marsha Sharp: She said she wasn't retiring so why don't you offer her a job. She could build something up real nice, y'all.

The grand dame of basketball leaves the court

With Jody Conradt's announcement that she will no longer coach the University of Texas comes the end of an era of one of women's college basketball's great programs. Conradt led Texas to the 1986 championship in undefeated fashion and returned to the Final Four in 2003 for her third time. This year marked the second year in a row that a Texas team has missed the NCAA tournament and for Conradt it was unacceptable. You have to admire Conradt's honesty and recognition that losing is unacceptable and a program not making the NCAA tournament is unacceptable. Conradt took responsibility for this and chose to step aside to allow a new leader to take Texas back to glory.

"I think it is appropriate at this point in time a change be made in terms of coaching. It's not acceptable for me, it's not acceptable for The University of Texas not to be in the NCAA Tournament two years in a row. So, after thinking about it, February was a very hard month because we lost games during that month that probably sealed our fate. It was during that time, that I started to think that Texas needs to be one of those teams challenging. Not only to be in the tournament, but to be a very high seed."

Conradt earned her 900th victory during the Big 12 Tournament before falling to Oklahoma. Her colleagues praised her leadership and her being a pioneer of the sport.

"She's an icon in women's basketball," Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. "Nine hundred wins is mind boggling. As great a coach as she is, she's an even better person. I've admired her and the job she's done. I'm happy for her she's retiring and moving on, but our game will miss her. I only have the ultimate respect and admiration for her. It has to be hard. She's from my era a little bit. You think of coaches around my age retiring -- whoa."

Only one coach in all of college basketball has more wins than Conradt, that being Pat Summitt, a close friend and someone who shares equal admiration along the lines of VanDerveer.

"As I told her, we all appreciate what she's done for this game," Summitt said. "She's been a great friend of mine, a mentor, and we're going to miss her. But she's left her footprints all over the game and all over a lot of us coaches."

Conradt coached for 38 seasons, 31 of those being at the University of Texas. She went to three final fours and won a national title, along with making five Elite 8 appearances and 11 Sweet Sixteens, the last coming in 2004. Conradt says she is going to take some time off, but will not consider anymore coaching opportunities and will likely take on some role with the University of Texas. She says she will not be involved or have any say in who will be the next coach at Texas.

Grace Under Pressure

For Bob Starkey and the LSU Lady Tigers, Selection Monday was finally a chance to show everyone that no, they will not fade away from the NCAA Tournament without a fight. While reports have surfaced that some in their own athletic department want them to lose early so they are away from the media glare and the "bad" publicity that comes each time the Pokey Chatman saga is placed on the news, the Lady Tigers are showing true resiliency and look poised to make another run in the NCAA's.

Three players were made available to the media on Monday and while they didn't have to speak to the controversy at hand, star player Sylvia Fowles made one thing clear: what Pokey did does not involve them and will not affect them in the tournament. She also made it clear no matter what happens, Pokey will still be a part of the LSU program.

"Pokey's always been a great person, she's like my mom and it's going to stay that way from here on out," Fowles said. "No matter what people say, I'm not going to look at her any different."

Fowles said losing Chatman meant losing "her demeanor that she brings to the team, but a lot of people don't know that Bob [Starkey] also brings the same things to the table even though he was always behind the scenes."

Rashanta LeBlanc also made it clear that the team is tight and focused on the goal of making their postseason run count.

"As a team, we've come to the conclusion that's something we're not going to talk about. We're going to focus on playing basketball, hopefully trying to make it to the Final Four. So as long as that's our focus, we have no problem."

For fans of the Lady Tigers, Monday was a good night to finally see how the team was dealing with the scandal, and at least on the surface it appears that it is business as usual for the team, as Coach Starkey has seemingly distanced the team from what Pokey Chatman did and how LSU's administration has bungled the handling of every facet of the public release of the information since the start.

While Skip Bertman, Pokey Chatman and the institution of LSU might be forever damaged from the fallout, it seems clear that the LSU Lady Tiger Program is in good shape and might become the surprise of the tourney.

Bracket Racket: The storylines and headlines that mark this year's field

So the brackets are out and no real surprises. Certainly the biggest storylines might revolve around off-the-court drama involving the Pokey Chatman/LSU scandal that gets more interesting by the day involving sex, lies, cover-ups, power, betrayal and more! Also, the announcement that the game will lose a legend in Jody Conradt after she failed to get Texas into the NCAA again will be a headline, as well as coaching change speculation with numerous BCS conference schools having openings (three in the SEC, two in the Big 12 and one in the Big Ten, so far). Here are storylines, headlines and things to look forward to as the madness begins this weekend!

The What-the-F*%K Award: La-Lafayette? Who? Why? Two bids from the awful Sun Belt conference while South Florida, Montana, Ball State, and many others are left out. Did the committee make a mistake and fail to proofread the final bracket?

Most Difficult Region: Dayton. With Tennessee, Maryland and Oklahoma all vying to get to Cleveland, it is definitely the marquee region.

Easiest Region: Greensboro. Duke has a cakewalk. Arizona State is the next toughest team in that bracket and the Sun Devils, as deep as they are, have no size to combat Bales. Welcome to Cleveland, Blue Devils.

The I-Got-Hosed Award: Rutgers. So you just won the Big East conference tournament and along the way upset #1 seed UConn by 8. The Big East sends 8 teams to the NCAA pool, while the Big Ten sends just three, but yet you get rewarded by having to play on Michigan State's home floor. The committee sure got that one right!?

Best First Round Matchup: Bowling Green vs. Oklahoma State. A team that is completely underrated due to the fact that they play in a mid-major versus a team that did not deserve in the tourney. It's the best because it gives the chance for the BGSU women to live up to the hype and make a statement. Runner-up: Iowa State vs. Washington

Biggest Snub: South Florida. I know it was going to be hard to put 9 Big East teams in, but why did you choose DePaul over South Florida. Awful, awful, awful. Others: Montana gets snubbed in favor of a team like La-Lafayette?

Undeserving of their Bid: La-Lafayette, DePaul, Oklahoma State

Cinderella Teams: Bowling Green, Iowa State, Middle Tennessee

Best Potential Second Round Matchup: Georgia Tech vs. Purdue, with Versyp and Joseph each with Purdue lineage; Michigan State vs. Rutgers, as this is a rematch of an earlier season meeting where Rutgers survived on their home floor. Now, MSU gets a home game vs. the Scarlet Knight.

Best Potential Regional Final: Tennessee vs. Maryland or Tennessee vs. Oklahoma. Either way, it should be a battle featuring some of the nation's best players.

Tourney Coach on the Hot Seat: Pat Summitt. Sure, she is a legend with six titles, but none since 1998. A decade drought will make people start questioning her foothold. Others: Gail Goestenkors is the coach with the most to prove. How many of these great teams can she not have win a national title? Tara Vanderveer is another legend with two national titles, but none since 1992. She hasn't even been to the Final Four since 1997 and she has lost in each of the last three Elite 8's. While most would love to be in that position, for Vanderveer and Stanford, it is unacceptable.

Rising Coaching Stars in the Tourney: Curt Miller, BGSU, should find himself in a high profile job after the tourney ends. Look for Miller to be Michigan's top choice and an excellent fit there in that conference. Joanne Boyle's Cal team would be seeded much higher and have higher expectations, but lost their starting PG to an injury. Watch for Cal to be in those top 16 seeds from now on year after year if Boyle stays put.

Players to Watch: Can Candace Parker finally live up to the hype? Will Courtney Paris dominate her opponents or fall on her face again in this tourney? Will Lindsey Harding play like she is the best in the nation by leading the Blue Devils to that elusive first title?

Best Players You Haven't Heard Of: Chrissy Given, Middle Tennessee; Amber Flynn, BGSU; Jazz Covington, Louisville; Amber Harris, Xavier.

Better Than Seed Reflects: Bowling Green, Oklahoma, Arizona State, Florida State

Worse Than Seed Reflects: Old Dominion, Xavier, Purdue, Ohio State

Weakest #1 Seed: UConn

Strongest #1 Seed: Duke or UNC, equal in my mind.

#2 Seed with Best Chance at Final Four: Stanford

Probable Final Four: UNC, Duke, Stanford, Maryland

Probable National Champion: North Carolina (Duke falls on its face once again, while there rival Tar Heels and Ivory Latta shine leaving Coach G to wait another year for her national title.)

Storylines:

*LSU will be bombarded with media attention. Assistant Coach Carla Berry will be the subject of much scrutiny as she is the one who turned Pokey in and no one knows her intentions. Bob Starkey, a respected but unknown quantity will have the weight of the world on his shoulders. Still, with all that said, many are forgetting this is an LSU team that beat Tennessee, Georgia, Michigan State, Ohio State, Ole Miss, West Virginia and barely lost games to UConn, Tennessee and Baylor. Their bracket is pretty favorable with UConn, Stanford and Rutgers, but it has yet to be seen if they can recover without their leader.

*Will this tourney be the last at Baylor for Coach Mulkey, as she will be offered one of the major jobs either at LSU or Florida?

*Will this tourney be that last at BGSU for Curt Miller? How about the last for Coach McCallie at MSU? The coaching change banter will be in full force.

*Last year Maryland came in as a two seed and shocked everyone by winning the national tournament. Now, flying under the radar again, Maryland won't have the benefit of having a weak one seed in their bracket this year. Last year it was Ohio State, who was ousted in the second round. This year, it is Pat and Tennessee. But even before then, Frese faces the daunting task of playing the Big 12 Champion Oklahoma Sooners and the dominant Courtney Paris.

BREAKING NEWS: Coaching legend Jody Conradt resigns at Texas

As if the world of women's college basketball coaching needed anymore twists and turns, another came tonight as Selection Monday was ending with ESPN reporting that longtime Texas women's coach Jody Conradt has handed in her resignation. Conradt, the second winningest coach of all-time with 900 wins, is a legend in women's basketball and the decision certainly is shocking. Conradt's Texas team, plagued with injuries and departures the last two years is missing the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive time, the first that has ever happened to the stories Longhorn program. Certainly this Texas job will be another highly coveted position that has come open along with the LSU job, Florida job, Michigan job and Arkansas job. More to come...

The Avenue's Final Power Seed Predictions

The 1's:
Duke
North Carolina
Tennessee
UConn
The 2's:
Maryland
Vanderbilt
Oklahoma
Stanford
The 3's:
Purdue
LSU
Arizona State
Texas A&M
The 4's:
Ohio State
George Washington
Georgia
Rutgers
THE NEXT TIER
The 5's:
NC State
Baylor
Middle Tennessee
Iowa State
The 6's:
Michigan State
Bowling Green
Marquette
Louisville
The 7's:
Pittsburgh
Florida State
California
Xavier