NBA Hoops

Columbia women’s basketball heads to March Madness for 1st time

Columbia women’s basketball heads to March Madness for 1st time

It is March Madness season, and the women’s 2024 Division I bracket was revealed on Sunday. South Carolina, Iowa, Texas and USC earned No. 1 seeds, while Notre Dame, UCLA, Stanford and Ohio State secured No. 2 seeds.

South Carolina’s first game will be against the No. 16 seed, either Sacred Heart or Presbyterian, at 2 p.m. ET (ESPN) Friday. South Carolina is undefeated for the second year in a row, which garnered them the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament, sitting squarely atop the Albany Region 1.

Iowa will take on the No. 16 seed, either Holy Cross or UT Martin, on Saturday at 3 p.m. ET (ABC). It could be argued that Albany Region 2 is the most difficult in the tournament. The region boasts No. 2 UCLA, No. 3 LSU, No. 4 Kansas State and No. 6 Louisville. Additionally, an LSU-Iowa matchup would draw quite a crowd, considering the 2023 national championship matchup between the two teams.

USC and JuJu Watkins are matched up against No. 16 A&M-Corpus Christi on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. ET (ESPN). Portland 3 Region also includes No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 UConn. This region could get spicy quickly with some big names like UConn’s Paige Bueckers back in action.

The final region is Portland 4 Region, with Texas in the No. 1 spot due to its Big 12 Conference tournament championship win. With that win, Stanford dropped to No. 2 seed but will come into the tourney with a vengeance. And everyone’s Cinderella this year is bound to be Columbia University. The women earned an at-large play-in bid against Vanderbilt. It is the first time in school history the women’s team will compete in the NCAA Tournament and the first time since 1968 that Columbia has a team in the tourney. The men’s team made their last appearance that year.

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