Over the past three seasons, they've simply become known as the Unlucky 15-the losers of the avoid-Tennessee sweepstakes.
You win three straight National Championships and sure enough nobody wants to play with you anymore. Tennessee has become the team nobody wants to see across the bracket until the Final Four (preferably even later), and it's a position Lady Vols head coach Pat Summitt relishes.
"I think this team has been waiting for March," Summitt said. "We're glad it's finally here."
But for three-time national player of the year Chamique Holdsclaw, the title of unbeatable has become a heavy crown. An uncharacteristic two regular season losses (the 98 Lady Vols were 39-0) has left the All American worried about underachievement.
"I think a lot of people are down on us right now," she said.
But All-SEC performer Kelly Jolly said the reports of the death of the Lady Vols have been greatly exaggerated.
"We can still up it another level," Jolly said. "What a perfect time to do it if we do it now."
Ironically, one member of the Unlucky 15 may have actually played itself into Tennessee's bracket. With a 24-6 regular season mark and a school-best 15-1 mark in the ACC, Duke earned a slot in the East Region as the ACC's best school.
"The seeding is done by ballot and point totals," Selection Committee chair Bernadette McGlade explained. "As teams are placed, the highest team in the conference gets placed closer to home."
For coach Gail Goestenkors it was probably a reward received with all the enthusiasm of that eighth pair of socks at Christmas.
Despite having to stare down the presumptive four-peat champion, who defeated the Blue Devils 74-60 earlier in the season, at the top of the bracket, Goestenkors has her squad prepared to do the impossible.
After losing to Clemson in the ACC finals, Duke has concentrated solely on being the toughest, if not the most talented, team on the court. And with six players about to don the Duke blue and white for the last time in their careers, motivation is something the No. 3 seed will not have to worry about.
"We have more of a sense of urgency than we did in the ACC tournament," senior co-captain Hilary Howard said. "We know this is it. Especially, as a senior, it's right in front of you, knowing you only have a few more opportunities to put on the Duke uniform. It's much more real when you're a senior."
But before Howard can worry about Tennessee, the Blue Devils will have to concentrate on getting past the region's No. 2, Old Dominion.
Without the usual headlining star power, the CAA champions struggled a bit this year, including a tough test in the one-bid conference final against East Carolina. An upset over Connecticut last month set their place as a No. 2 seed, however.
"You bring your best game to the table that night; you bring motivation and fuel for the [psychological] fire," ODU coach Wendy Larry told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. "Then you put it all out there and see what happens."
Outside of the East's top three seeds, only one other team is ranked in the latest Coaches poll, No. 15 Virginia Tech, the No. 4 seed who earlier in the year upset Duke in Durham.
No. 6 seed Tulane is ranked No. 23 in the latest AP poll.
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