PITTSBURGH, Pa. -- You can't always judge an NCAA tournament bracket on selection day.

Remember how perilous Tennessee's path to the women's basketball Final Four seemed nine days ago? The No. 1-seeded Lady Vols were dumped into a region top-heavy with top teams.

There was defending national champion Maryland, ranked seventh nationally; fifth-ranked Ohio State; 11th ranked Oklahoma; and 16th-ranked Middle Tennessee State, which won 27 of 30 regular-season games.

Was that any way to treat the most hallowed program in women's basketball? Why, coupled with last year's surprising No. 2 seeding, it was enough to make the Lady Vols wonder if the selection committee was out to get them.

Nine days later, the Lady Vols should send the committee a thank-you note.

Fourth-seeded Ohio State lost in the first round to No. 13 seed Marist, which later upset MTSU in the second round on Monday. Second-seeded Maryland lost to Ole Miss on Tuesday night.

Now, after beating Pittsburgh 68-54 on Tuesday night, UT finds itself in a Sweet 16 that's less imposing than the final four of the SEC tournament. The Lady Vols will play Marist, and Oklahoma will face Ole Miss in the semifinals of the Dayton Regional on Sunday afternoon.

Pittsburgh had another Sweet 16 in mind Tuesday. Playing on their home floor at the Petersen Events Center, the Panthers had big plans.

"I truly thought we were going to Dayton," Pitt coach Agnus Berenato said.

Dayton was basically out of reach by halftime. Trailing by 16 points, the Panthers scored the first eight points of the second half, but UT quickly pushed the lead up to 15 and never led by fewer than nine thereafter.

"Once (the Panthers) settled down, they played as though they didn't have anything to lose," UT assistant coach Holly Warlick said.

But they settled down way too late. And you couldn't help but wonder if the high expectations and the home-court crowd actually worked against them.

The Lady Vols are accustomed to playing in front of big, hostile crowds. It's anything but routine for the Panthers, who drew 1,720 fans for their final regular-season home game.

Never mind the venue. The Lady Vols seemed more at home before the crowd of 8,791.

"Sometimes, like at Arkansas this year, we don't play well in front of a small crowd," Warlick said. "We're better in a hostile environment."

Little did the Panthers' fans know, they might have been hurting themselves every time they opened their mouths or put their hands together. The evidence was on the scoreboard, which had the Lady Vols up 23-9 after the first 11 minutes.

"I felt they were a little nervous (at the outset)," UT point guard Shannon Bobbitt said.

If the Panthers were a tad tense, the Lady Vols were intense, determined to avoid the upsets that have plagued other ranked teams in the first two rounds of the tournament.

"We knew all those teams were getting upset," UT center Nicky Anosike said. "We were well aware of it. We didn't want to be one of those teams."

Instead, they should benefit from what happened to those teams.

Marist is a hot team and a good story. Ole Miss is athletic and can alter games with its press. Oklahoma won the Big 12 tournament and shared the regular-season conference championship with Texas A&M.

But none of those teams has Maryland's firepower. And a regional that once looked so balanced, now looks decidedly orange.