Women’s basketball opens NCAA Tournament Friday in Seattle
For the first time in school history, the South Carolina women’s basketball team has earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
The Gamecocks are the top team in the Stanford region of the bracket and will head to Seattle, Wash. for the first round of the competition where they will face No. 16 seed Cal State Northridge.
South Carolina’s tournament run will begin Sunday against the Matadors, who shouldn’t pose any threat to the Gamecocks as a No. 16 seed toppled a No. 1 seed only once.
The real intrigue for South Carolina comes with a glance further down the bracket, where the Stanford Cardinal sit as the No. 2 seed in the region. If both teams reach the Elite Eight of the tournament, the Gamecocks will have the opportunity to achieve a measure of revenge against the Cardinal.
In the 2012 NCAA Tournament, top-seeded Stanford ended fifth-seeded South Carolina’s season in the Sweet Sixteen. When the schools met two years ago, it was essentially a home game for the Cardinal as the contest was played in Fresno, Calif. If the two teams are to meet this time around, it will literally be a home game for Stanford, as they are the host school for the region.
While it’s probably one of the furthest things from their minds right now, the Gamecocks will not get the chance to avenge last year’s upset loss to a Kansas team that knocked South Carolina out of the tournament in the second round.
Across the Stanford region, more potential opponents for the Gamecocks are third-seeded Penn State and No. 4 seed North Carolina, with Michigan State rounding out the top-five seeds.
If the region is all chalk up to the Sweet Sixteen, South Carolina will have the opportunity to square off with the Tar Heels, who were the first out of just four teams to hand the Gamecocks a loss this season.
Around the rest of the bracket, Connecticut, Notre Dame and Tennessee earned the remaining three No. 1 seeds. South Carolina and the Lady Volunteers are two of eight total Southeastern Conference schools in the tournament.
After bulldozing their way through most of their schedule, the Gamecocks’ jeopardized their No. 1 seed towards the end of the year with a loss to Tennessee in the final regular-season game and a slip-up against Kentucky in the SEC Tournament. But despite many experts predicting South Carolina to earn No. 2 seed, the selection committee was able to look past the Gamecocks’ late mishaps.
With the other regions being located in Lincoln, Nebr., South Bend, Ind. and Louisville, Ky., South Carolina’s landing spot in the tournament is the furthest possible location the committee could have sent the team.
But the Gamecocks don’t have the luxury of complaining about where they’ll be playing, as they must turn their focus to arguably the toughest regional bracket in the tournament. And when the competition gets underway Saturday, South Carolina will look to parlay its historic No. 1 seed into the program’s first-ever Final Four appearance.