ESPN bracketologist Charlie Creme has CMU in Norfolk region at No. 12 seed

Women’s basketball punched its ticket to the NCAA tournament with a Mid-American Conference tournament championship victory against Akron.

But ,now they wait until Monday for the selection show to see where the team will be playing the first round of the big dance.

Fortunately, ESPN created the science of Bracketology with men’s basketball bracketologist Joe Lunardi and women’s basketball’s Charlie Creme.

The two have been predicting the 60-plus team brackets for years and they rarely miss a beat. Creme didn’t originally have the Chippewas in his field of 64 before the tournament victory, instead writing in Toledo, the regular-season champions as the only MAC representative.

But after the win, Creme updated his bracket to include CMU. He has placed it with the No. 12 seed and moving up in the Norfolk, Va., region, starting the tournament in Boulder, Colo., against the predicted No. 5 University of Colorado.

The Rockets were not included into Creme’s updated bracket, despite only losing three games all season, twice to the Chippewas and once against Dayton in the second game of the season.

The Buffaloes finished 25-6 overall and 13-5 in the PAC-12 and lost, 61-47, to Stanford in the second round of the conference tournament.

The Norfolk region also has first round games in Columbus, Ohio, Knoxville, Tenn., and Durham, N.C.

Included in the Norfolk bracket is predicted No. 1 seed Notre Dame, who CMU battled in McGuirk Arena in 72-63 loss. Duke is the predicted No. 2 seed and Tennessee, who is in its first season without legendary coach Pat Summit, with the No. 3 seed.

Dayton, who beat Toledo early this season, is at the No. 4 seed and is predicted to play No. 13 South Dakota State, who lost in McGuirk Arena 88-62.

Familiar foe Purdue was given the No. 6 seed, the Boilermakers got revenge against the Chippewas this season 87-71 after they lost in McGuirk Arena last season.

CMU played six games this season against teams that Creme, as of March 17 at 3 a.m., has in the NCAA tournament.

The Chippewas split two games with Green Bay, who was listed as a No. 7 seed. They also beat predicted No. 9 seed Saint Joseph’s 98-84.

Overall, CMU was 3-3 against teams predicted to be in the NCAA tournament and that could improve to 5-4 if UT can squeeze into the tournament.