Louisiana Tech women’s basketball coach Leon Barmore has been around too long to know not to take Alcorn State lightly in a first round NCAA women’s tournament.

The Lady Techsters host Alcorn Saturday at 6:30 p.m. in a first round contest.

&uot;You don’t drop you gun now,&uot; said Barmore, who has been involved in every NCAA women’s tournament since the event started in 1982. &uot;You don’t go into the playoffs thinking you can automatically beat anybody.&uot;

Top-seeded and third-ranked Louisiana Tech, (28-2) won the Sunbelt tournament 97-94 over Western Kentucky.

Alcorn (22-8), the No. 16 seed, surprised Grambling in the finals of the Southwestern Athletic Conference to earn the automatic bid.

&uot;I know that (Alcorn coach) Shirley Walker has been one of those coaches whose done a nice job for many years, year in and year out, and nobody really knew it,&uot; Barmore said. &uot;We played them a few years ago in our tournament, and they gave us fits. We respect them, and we respect the conference championship they just one.&uot;

Also in the bracket are eighth seed Kansas, ninth seed Vanderbilt, fifth seed North Carolina State and No. 12 seed SMU.

”This may be the fairest bracket I’ve ever seen,” Barmore said. &uot;We’ve had some unlucky draws in the past.&uot;

Louisiana Tech advanced to the Final Four last year, losing to Purdue 77-63 in the semifinals.

&uot;We had three starters back, but we had some injuries and had to pretty much move the second team up,&uot; Barmore said. &uot;We’ve had a couple of recruits step up and really help out with Catrina Frierson of Vicksburg being one of them. She had 19 points in our championship win over Western Kentucky.&uot;

The Lady Techsters beat Tennessee and have not lost since a setback to Connecticut on Jan. 2.

&uot;I think we have had a very good year and I think it helped going to the Final Four last year,&uot; Barmore said. &uot;This group has tasted that.&uot;

The winner of Saturday’s game faces the winner of the Kansas- Vanderbilt game on Monday.