South Carolina women's basketball earns top overall seed in NCAA Tournament
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South Carolina earned the top overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and will play in the Greensboro region.
The Gamecocks host the winner of Howard and Incarnate Word in the first round and would play the winner of Miami and South Florida in the second round.
“In order for us to win a national championship we’re got to win six games. Whether you’re the top seed or the bottom seed you’re going to have to win (six games),” Dawn Staley said. “Your path is a little bit different than the last seeded team. If your body of work says that you’re a number one seed and deserve the number one overall seed, it’s helpful.”
The NCAA Tournament expanded to 68 teams for the first time this season as part of the effort to reduce inequalities faced by the women’s tournament (the NCAA is also allowing the women’s tournament to use “March Madness” branding for the first time). The last four at-large teams and the last four automatic qualifiers will play opening-round games on Wednesday and Thursday. Columbia will host Howard and Incarnate Word on Wednesday at 7:00 pm.
South Carolina hosts the first two rounds of the tournament, played Friday and Sunday This is the first time in four years South Carolina has been able to host the first two rounds. In 2019 they played in Charlotte because Colonial Life Arena hosted the men’s tournament. In 2020 the tournament was canceled, and in 2021 the entire tournament was held in San Antonio. This was also the first time South Carolina has been able to hold a selection show party since 2019.
“We haven’t been able to do those in two years,” Staley said. “I don’t think our junior class has been able to do this The energy in our building that our fans provide for us, we wanted that.”
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The other top seeds are NC State (Bridgeport), Stanford (Spokane), and Louisville (Wichita). South Carolina is joined in the Greensboro region by #2 Iowa, #3 Iowa State, #4 Arizona, #5 North Carolina, #6 Georgia, and #7 Colorado. Having Iowa in the Greensboro region sets up a potential Elite Eight game between South Carolina and Iowa and the two frontrunners for national player of the year, Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark.
The SEC placed eight teams in the NCAA Tournament, tied with the ACC for the most of any conference. #3 LSU, #4 Tennessee, #6 Kentucky, #6 Georgia, #7 Ole Miss, #10 Florida, and #10 Arkansas are the other SEC teams.
South Carolina has had a week to dwell on the stunning loss to Kentucky in the SEC Tournament. The team got a few days off before returning to practice. Now they are anxious for some competition.
“We’re trying to correct some things that occurred over the weekend and move forward,” Staley said. “A loss seems to jolt you a little bit and have you questioning everything. We’re a good basketball team, no doubt about it. We do some things extremely well and we did some things that weren’t so good and we got caught. We’re aware of what those things are and we’re working towards correcting those things.”
Tip times for the first round will be announced later.
