Undefeated South Carolina, Caitlin Clark’s Iowa, Pac-12 champion Southern California and Big 12 champ Texas earned the four No. 1 seeds in the women’s NCAA Tournament when the bracket was revealed Sunday night.
The Gamecocks (32-0) and coach Dawn Staley received the No. 1 overall seed for the third tournament in a row. They survived a test from Tennessee in the semifinal thanks to a buzzer-beater and beat rival LSU in the final to win the SEC tournament last week.
After falling to Iowa in the Final Four last year, South Carolina will begin its quest for another national title against the winner of a play-in game between Sacred Heart and Presbyterian.
“There’s a standard that we play by on both sides of the basketball,” Staley said on ESPN’s broadcast. “We’re very fortunate that we’ve got players who believe in their process, and in turn, it makes us a better team.”
South Carolina and Iowa (29-4) will play in Regionals 1 and 2 in Albany, N.Y. USC (26-5) and Texas (30-4) are the No. 1 seeds in Regionals 3 and 4, centered in Portland, Ore.
The first and second rounds will be played on campus sites of the top four seeds in each region, while Albany and Portland will serve as the two regional sites. The Final Four will be played in Cleveland on April 5 and 7.
The No. 2 seeds are Notre Dame (26-6) in Regional 1, UCLA (25-6) in Regional 2, Ohio State (25-5) in Regional 3 and Stanford (28-5) in Regional 4.
Entering the day, it was uncertain whether Texas or Stanford would earn the fourth and final No. 1 seed. Stanford lost to USC 74-61 in the Pac-12 title game.
“To say that we talked about it more than once would be an understatement,” women’s basketball committee chair Lisa Peterson told ESPN. “It was definitely one of the biggest discussions that we had. I think what it came down to was, Texas had to play three tournament teams to get to the Big 12 championship, and how they’re playing lately.”
The No. 3 seed in Regional 2 is defending national champion LSU (28-5), meaning a rematch of last year’s record-setting title game against Iowa could occur in the Elite Eight.
The other No. 3 seeds were Oregon State (24-7) in Regional 1, UConn (29-5) in Regional 3 and North Carolina State (27-6) in Regional 4. Rounding out the top 16 teams and hosting games in the first week, the No. 4 seeds were Indiana (24-5), Kansas State (25-7), Virginia Tech (24-7) and Gonzaga (30-3) in Regionals 1-4, respectively.
The Pac-12, in its last league as a bona fide conference, got seven teams into the tournament: USC, Stanford, UCLA, Oregon State, Colorado, Utah and Arizona.
Of note, the Ivy League got two teams into the field: Conference champion Princeton (25-4) is the No. 9 seed and could be an obstacle for the Hawkeyes in the second round in Iowa City. Columbia (23-6), which lost to Princeton in the Ivy title game, was given its first March Madness bid in program history as an at-large into the First Four. The Lions will face Vanderbilt on the 12-seed line in Regional 3.
Auburn and Arizona were also among the last four at-larges in the field and will play a play-in game for the 11-seed line in Regional 3. Villanova, Penn State, Washington State and Miami were the first four teams out.
–Field Level Media
