Oregon State Women's Basketball: NCAA Committee Places Beavers as a 3 Seed in First Ranking

(Andy Cripe, Mid-Valley Media)

It's mid-February, that means that March Madness is right around the corner, today the NCAA Tournament Committee released its top four seeds of the tournament if the season ended today and has the Beavers as a 3 seed in the Albany Region.

Oregon State (20-4, 10-2 Pac-12) is coming off a tough road-split of the Bay Area school's. On Friday, the Beavers suffered a miserable 61-44 defeat by the Stanford Cardinal, but finished the trip with a much needed 82-74 victory over the Cal Bears on Sunday.

As of now, the Beavers are tied with Stanford for 2nd in the conference. But the Beavers have one of the toughest schedule stretches in the entire NCAA coming up that includes two games against No. 3 Oregon, a tough match-up against UCLA, who has won six straight games, and a road game against No. 19 Arizona State, who beat the Beavers 79-76 in Corvallis in January.

The Albany Regional looks to be one of the tougher paths to the Final Four, as it includes No. 5 Mississippi State (No. 1 seed), No. 4 UConn (No. 2 seed), and No. 20 Miami (No. 4 seed). It would also force the Beavers to travel across the country to Albany, New York if they make it to the Sweet Sixteen.

If the Beavers are able to find a way to steal a win from the first-place Ducks coming up this week, get payback at Arizona State March 1st, and make a run in the Pac-12 tournament, they could fight their way to a possible No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament or into an easier regional as a 3 seed, but as for now, time will only tell.