South Carolina's Dawn Staley may encounter familiar opponents as her team tries to complete an undefeated season.
The Gamecocks, the overall No. 1 seed in the women’s NCAA Tournament, aim to be the 10th women’s basketball team to go unbeaten for a whole season.
Last season, they almost accomplished this before narrowly losing to Caitlin Clark and Iowa in the Final Four. This time, Iowa is also a top seed but they may only face off in the national championship game.
USC and star freshman JuJu Watkins earned the Trojans’ first No. 1 seed since 1986 in the Portland Regional. Texas got the fourth No. 1 seed, its first since 2004, and will play Drexel in the other Portland Regional opener. There was a discussion about whether Texas or Stanford would get the fourth No. 1 seed.
NCAA selection committee Chair Lisa Peterson mentioned, “We discussed it extensively. What it came down to was Texas had to play three tournament teams to reach the (Big 12) championship.”
The South Carolina coach Dawn Staley’s team has faced challenges this year, including needing a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Kamilla Cardoso to win the semifinals of the SEC Tournament over Tennessee, but has always pulled through. The Gamecocks will play the winner of Sacred Heart and Presbyterian in the first round of the tournament.
Staley said, “It feels great to be the No. 1 overall seed and to be undefeated. I’m excited because we get a chance to know our path to win the national championship and face many familiar opponents in our region. But we have to take it one game at a time and that’s what we’ll do on Friday.”
Cardoso will miss the opening game after being ejected for fighting in the SEC title game. South Carolina would have her back for a potential second-round matchup against either North Carolina or Michigan State. South Carolina beat the Tar Heels earlier in the season.
“Fortunately for us, it’s someone we played without for four games this season,” Staley said. “We know we’re a better basketball team when Kamilla Cardoso is in the lineup.”
Notre Dame, Oregon State, and Indiana are also in the Albany Region alongside the Gamecocks.
Caitlin Clark, who became the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer this year, is trying to win her first title. The Hawkeyes open up against the winner of Holy Cross and UT Martin. The other top teams in their region are UCLA, defending champion LSU, and Kansas State.
Other top teams in the USC’s bracket are Ohio State, UConn, and Virginia Tech. The Huskies were the last team to go undefeated in a season, running through the 2015-16 season.
Texas might have to deal with No. 2 Stanford, No. 3 North Carolina State and fourth-seeded Gonzaga.
Last season, the NCAA changed the way it operates and is now using two regional locations for the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight rounds. Albany, New York, is one and the other is in Portland, Oregon. Again, the top four teams in each region will hold the opening two rounds.
The tournament starts Wednesday with two First Four games. The full madness begins with 16 games on Friday and 16 more the following day. The Final Four will be in Cleveland this year for the first time since 2007. The national semifinals are on April 5, with the championship game two days later.
Tennessee continued its streak of appearing in all 42 NCAA Tournaments. Conversely, Presbyterian, California Baptist, Columbia and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi are all making their first appearance.
The Lions were one of the last four teams in the field. Just outside the field of 68 were Penn State, Washington State, Miami and Villanova.
“There were seven or eight schools we talked about,” Peterson said of the final few spots. “That conversation lasted over two days.”
The Atlantic Coast Conference and Southeastern Conference both have eight teams in the field. The Big Ten, Pac-12 and Big 12 each have seven. The Big East has three teams. The West Coast Conference and Ivy League each have two. This is the second time the Ivy League has received an at-large bid.
