NCAA tourney places women out West

The ballroom: Cameron Indoor Stadium. The partner: fifteenth seeded Middle Tennessee State University, champions of the Ohio Valley Conference. Leading the dance: the No. 2 seed in the west, the Duke University women's basketball team.

For the Blue Devils, dancing days are here again, and in a big way. For the fourth consecutive season and fifth time in the 22-year history of the program, Duke will be a part of the field of 64. And for the second time in school history, and second time in three years, the Blue Devils (21-7, 13-3 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) will be playing host of the sub-regionals.

This year's bracket could prove to be the most successful ever for Duke, a team that has never advanced beyond the round of 32. Playing as the second toughest No. 2 seed, beneath No. 1 seed and Pacific-10 champion Stanford, the Blue Devils may face no stumbling blocks between themselves and the Sweet 16.

Not a bad way to start the last leg of the postseason for a team that teetered on the brink of the top-25 in January. Once thought to be in jeopardy of making the postseason, the strength of its first regular season conference crown, a No. 8 national ranking, a No. 6 RPI ranking, and a final stretch that saw Duke win 11 of their final 13, proved to be enough to vault it to a surprising No. 2 seed.

Waiting to greet the Blue Devils are the Blue Raiders of MTSU. Although the Blue Raiders may be riding the high of a conference tournament title they stole from the No. 4 seed, they still have yet to meet up with ranked competition all season, and No. 8 Duke might not be the best place to begin.

Also suffering from the geographical oddity of Durham hosting a West sub-regional game will be the champions of the Mountain division of the Western Athletic Conference, No. 7 Utah (21-4, 11-3 in the WAC ), and No. 10 Louisville (17-10, 12-4 in Conference-USA), runner-up in the C-USA finals. The winner will face the victor of the Duke/MTSU matchup.

The No. 3 seed in the West bracket, Florida, could yield a dangerous matchup for the Blue Devils in the Sweet 16. Having met earlier in the season in a 70-63 Florida victory at the State Farm Classic in Gainesville, Fla., Duke knows full well that the Gators are a serious threat to knock off any team in the bracket. No. 3 Florida (20-8, 10-4 in the South Eastern Conference), ranked No.13 nationally, faces Montana in the first round in Gainesville. Rounding out the bottom half of the Western bracket is No. 6 Wisconsin, who takes on No. 11 Virginia Tech. The top half of the bracket is highlighted by top seed Stanford and No. 4 Iowa, regular season champion of the Big Ten.