It’s tough to analyze the 2008 women’s college basketball NCAA tournament bracket for the first time and not do a double take when eyeing the top-seeded team overall – Connecticut – and then immediately scrolling down the Greensboro Regional to get a load of who sits there at No. 2. Rutgers.

Rutgers (24-6) and Connecticut (32-1) are natural Big East rivals and the Scarlet Knights were the only team to find a way to beat Connecticut this season, by two points on Feb. 5 in New Jersey. If both schools march through their early rounds – not as easy as it sounds this year, either – they will meet again for the right to go to the Final Four.

Connecticut’s last Final Four was in 2004, so its four seniors have never been to the semifinals. If they don’t make it this year, they’ll be the first class in 20 years not to have that experience.

Rutgers, meanwhile, fields a team with all but two players who played, and lost, in the national championship game to Tennessee a year ago.

Committee chairwoman Judy Southard explained the decision to pair the two in the same regional on the NCAA selection show Monday.

“Connecticut being the overall No. 1 got first shot at regional selection,” she said. “As we moved on through placing the teams in the bracket, when we got to Rutgers they also were shipped to Greensboro.

“We spent quite a bit of time studying that and trying to find a way to avoid that happening. Once we really got to analyzing it, we got to an impasse if we were to protect the balance of the bracket.”

The Huskies are led by Maya Moore, the first freshman in Big East history, male or female, to be named player of the year. None of the Huskies was expecting to face Rutgers in the regional, though the committee did select a record-tying high eight teams from the conference (the Big 12 also got in eight).

“I think probably everybody was surprised, with so many teams to choose from it was kind of ironic,” Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma said. “I guess Rutgers is the No. 8 seed in the country and I find that hard to believe but I guess they are. If I was them I would be questioning what is going on.”

The Big East made history by sending eight teams to both the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments. The 16 combined teams are the most ever from a single conference.

The other top-seeded teams in the women’s tournament are North Carolina and its Atlantic Coast Conference rival Maryland, along with Tennessee. The 64-team tournament begins Saturday with the Final Four on April 6 and 8 in Tampa, Fla.

The Tar Heels (30-2) had their first unbeaten regular season in the ACC and suffered their only two losses of the year to Tennessee and Connecticut.

This is the sixth straight year Tennessee (30-2) has won 30 or more games.

By far the toughest competition is in the New Orleans Regional, with the top four teams being North Carolina, Louisiana State, Louisville and Oklahoma State.