Where South Carolina women's basketball sits in AP top 25 heading into NCAA Tournament
South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley was not too thrilled with the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee on Sunday. The Gamecocks, despite owning the best resume in the sport, are not the No. 1 overall seed in the Big Dance. Instead, that distinction went to the UCLA Bruins, presumedly due to the November matchup that UCLA won over Carolina.
USC is the tourney’s No. 2 overall seed and the No. 1 seed in the “Birmingham 2” region. The 1-seed recognition is the program’s fifth since the 2021 tournament, meaning Dawn Staley’s team has been a top-4 squad each of those years (and would have been the year before had the season not been cut short due to the Covid-19 pandemic).
This year, following the standard two games at top seeds’ home venues, half of the bracket will report to Birmingham, Alabama (Birmingham 1, headed by No. 1 seed Texas) and Birmingham 2, headed by the No. 1 seed Gamecocks), while the other half will head to Spokane, Washington (Spokane 1, headed by No. 1 seed UCLA and Spokane 2, headed by No. 1 seed Southern Cal).
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South Carolina’s spot as the No. 2 overall seed matches their place in the NET rankings (though, UConn is No. 1 in the NET). When the final AP top 25 poll before the postseason (and post-championship) edition dropped on Monday, the Gamecocks earned another No. 2 designation. Just like in the NCAA Tournament hierarchy, UCLA is the only team positioned higher than South Carolina.
With only a handful of games played since the last rankings, there was very little movement from last week’s poll.
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You can see the entire AP top 25 rankings below (first-place votes also in parentheses):
- UCLA Bruins (19)
- South Carolina Gamecocks (8)
- UConn Huskies (5)
- Southern Cal Trojans
- Texas Longhorns
- TCU Horned Frogs
- Duke Blue Devils
- Notre Dame Fighting Irish
- NC State Wolfpack
- LSU Tigers
- Oklahoma Sooners
- North Carolina Tar Heels
- Kentucky Wildcats
- Baylor Bears
- Ohio State Buckeyes
- West Virginia Mountaineers
- Oklahoma State Cowboys
- Maryland Terrapins
- Kansas State Wildcats
- Tennessee Lady Volunteers
- Alabama Crimson Tide
- Florida State Seminoles
- Creighton Blue Jays
- South Dakota State Jackrabbits
- Ole Miss Rebels
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South Carolina will play its first NCAA Tournament game on Friday, March 21st at Colonial Life Arena. The Gamecocks will host the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles in the 1-vs-16 matchup at 4:00 p.m. ESPN will broadcast the contest while the ESPN app makes it available for streaming.
The winner of South Carolina-Tennessee Tech then will face off against the victor of the Utah-Indiana matchup. That game also will be at Colonial Life Arena.
The (expected) two remaining home games for the Gamecocks could make history: South Carolina women’s basketball fans are approaching two all-time attendance records. If CLA draws 18,000 total fans between the two games, the FAMs will break their own single-season records for overall attendance and average attendance.
