South Carolina women's basketball; Breaking down the Greensboro Region
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We’ve had a night to think about the bracket, so we present seven Monday morning thoughts about the Greensboro Region.
- Quick trivia question: How many current Gamecocks have played an NCAA Tournament game at Colonial Life Arena? Just one: LeLe Grissett. And she played all of 16 minutes and scored one point in two games in 2018. In 2019 the Gamecocks “hosted” at Charlotte to make room for the men’s tournament at Colonial Life Arena (congratulations to the 49ers for making the tournament, by the way). The tournament was canceled in 2020, and last year all games were held in San Antonio.
- Columbia will get the distinction of hosting the first-ever opening-round game Wednesday at 7:00 pm when Howard and Incarnate Word face off. It will be interesting to see how these games are received. The NCAA said this is a transition year, and in the future, the opening-round games could all be played at one location, the way all four men’s opening-round games are played in Dayton.
- In the 8/9 game, both teams are dangerous. #8 Miami knocked off Louisville and Notre Dame during a run to the ACC Tournament championship game. #9 South Florida was the AAC runner-up to UCF, but knocked off Stanford and Oregon back in November, after taking Tennessee and UConn to the wire.
- Most of the attention has gone to a potential Elite Eight game between South Carolina and Iowa, but there are some other interesting matchups along the way. South Carolina could play North Carolina or Arizona in the Sweet 16 in Greensboro. North Carolina and South Carolina have some tournament history, including a Gamecock win in Greensboro in 2015 that the Tar Heels did not take well. Arizona was in the top ten for much of the season but lost three of its last four while leading scorer and rebounder Cate Reese was sidelined with a dislocated shoulder. But Reese will be back for the tournament so Arizona could be better than a typical #4 seed. Dawn Staley and Arizona coach Adia Barnes have also become good friends over the past year or so, which adds an extra layer of intrigue.
- In the bottom half of the bracket, DePaul and stud freshman Aneesah Morrow, the double-double machine, face Dayton in the play-in game. If DePaul wins that, the Blue Demons would face Georgia and center Jenna Staiti.
- #7 seed Colorado is making its first tournament appearance since 2013. That year Colorado hosted as a #5 seed because #4 South Carolina wasn’t eligible to host. Colorado was upset in the first round by Kansas, which is also making its first tournament appearance since 2013. Kansas beat South Carolina in the second round (in front of a minuscule crowd, since the host team had been eliminated), which was the last time the Gamecocks failed to advance to the Sweet 16.
- There’s a huge potential game in the Sweet 16 between arch-rivals Iowa and Iowa State. Iowa State won the regular-season matchup, but Iowa has played better down the stretch. A tournament game would ratchet up the already intense rivalry. Both programs have large, passionate fan bases, so Tobacco Road could be overrun by corn.
