When talking about the Lady Techsters' seeding in the NCAA Tournament, the old saying floating around the Tech community is undeniably true -- It's that time of year to break out the ol' Vaseline.

And the NCAA Women's Basketball Selection Committee has done it again, giving the Lady Techsters a number five seed in the Mideast bracket. Here's a team standing at 27-2 overall, 17-1 in the Western Athletic Conference and finishing the season on a 19-game winning streak with only two losses on the season at Tennessee and at Rice.

Some might say this is an embarrassment and disgrace, but long-time Lady Techster fans know how the game is played and aren't surprised.

It seems as if the Selection Committee, large portions of the media and people across the country have lost respect and fear for the Lady Techsters despite America's coaches voting Tech as the fifth best team in the country in the coaches' poll at the end of the season.

Have they forgotten that in Tech's 30 seasons, the Lady Techsters have recorded some incredible marks, including: 851 victories, for an average of 28.4 wins a season, an overall winning percentage of 87.1 percent, 23 straight NCAA Tournament appearances, 13 Final Fours, eight National Championship game appearances and three National Championship titles?

Tech has also posted a winning season in every year of existence, including 26 20-plus winning seasons and 18 30-plus win seasons.

No one can argue the enormous success of this program in the past. However, the fact is, it's just that. The past.

Every one knows our university did not join the WAC for women's basketball, and the Lady Techster program suffers from lack of respect of beating members of a sub-par conference, even though Tech thoroughly pounds the majority of its victims.

The main reason Tech is dissed on the national scene is our lack of strength of schedule, and the solution to this problem is the Lady Techsters must step up and regain national respect and fear by winning deep into the NCAA Tournament.

Thus far this year, the Lady Techsters are on their way to proving they are still among the nation's elite and are a force to be reckoned with, as Tech had no cup cake contests.

Tech began the tournament with a match-up against the Montana Lady Grizzlies on Montana's home court, and head coach Kurt Budke put the game in perspective for everyone who wasn't there in a humorous but serious light.

"The next time I come to Montana, it's going to be on vacation," Budke said. "I'm never playing here again. The coach is too good, the players are too good, they play too hard and they have very loud, very knowledgeable fans."

Montana was a tough, gritty team, and 7,413 screaming fans pulsed adrenaline through the Lady Grizz' veins. But Erica Smith-Taylor carried Tech to victory, as she posted a 29-point outburst.

Then Smith-Taylor responded with another gargantuan career-high 30 points to lead Tech over Texas Tech Monday night.

And now is the time for the Lady Techsters to restore themselves to the lime light of national respect Ð a dual with the Duke Blue Devils. Duke has traveled to two consecutive Final Fours and is ready to make it to the Big Dance, but Smith-Taylor and the Lady Techsters are up to the task of disappointing the Blue Devils.

Many factors lie in determining Tech's chances of winning this Sweet 16 contest. First, Tech's post players must fight through the double teams, win rebounding and pose an interior threat. Second chance points and opponent's offensive rebounding have hurt Tech. Our guards must continue to penetrate as well as produce from the arc to keep defenses from sagging in the lane. And, finally, our guards must do a better job than in the first two rounds of cutting off the dribble and penetration, especially with that player named Alana Beard.

Josh Milton is a junior journalism major from Ruston and serves as sports editor for The Tech Talk.