NCAA women: Sweet 16 has old favorites and new contenders,
SAN ANTONIO — The regional semifinals for this year’s NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournament include plenty of familiar faces.
Connecticut (26-1), the all-time leader with 11 national championships, is there as the No. 1 seed in the River Walk Region. Also around for the second weekend are Baylor (27-2) — a three-time champ and the winner of the most recent tourney in 2019, the Lady Bears are No. 2 in the River Walk — Alamo Region and overall No. 1 seed Stanford (27-2), plus Hemisfair Region No. 1 seed South Carolina (24-4), which has advanced to this point for the eighth time in a 10-year span.
North Carolina State (22-2), No. 1 in the Mercado Region, is starting to make a habit of deep runs. The Wolfpack, led by former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coach Wes Moore, are in the Sweet 16 for the third straight time.
Then there are some truly fresh faces for this round, including first-time regional semifinalist Michigan (16-5) and Arizona (18-5), which is in the Sweet 16 for just the second time, with the Wildcats’ first appearance more than 20 years ago.
It all tips off Saturday afternoon with a highly anticipated matchup between UConn and fifth-seeded Iowa (20-9), with each team led by a heralded freshman who is an All-American: UConn’s Paige Bueckers was the top vote recipient, while Iowa’s Caitlyn Clark was a second-team selection. Bueckers’ Huskies will have their own familiar face on the sideline, again with Geno Auriemma coaching the Huskies for the first time since the Big East title game.
He missed the first two rounds of the NCAA tourney while isolated due to COVID-19, but he’s back in time for a big game. The 67-year-old coach who took charge of the Huskies in 1985 — and led the program to its first NCAA title a decade later — couldn’t remember a time when there was so much hype around two freshmen.
“It’s been a while since you have two kids that have had this kind of an impact, both on their teams and on the game itself nationally. To have one is kind of cool. To have two and to be so alike in so many ways?” Auriemma said. “And yet unfortunately, they’re going to be put in a situation where it’s like a big football game, where they say it’s (Tom) Brady versus Aaron Rodgers. It couldn’t be further from the truth.
“It’s two really, really young kids, really good players that do a lot for their teams.”
UConn has done this 27 straight times. Iowa is making consecutive appearances in the Sweet 16 but just its third of the century. Clark is aware of the spotlight this pairing will receive.
“More and more people are noticing, more and more people are watching,” she said. “I think a lot of people will tune in and watch this game, and that’s exactly what you want for women’s college basketball.”
Clark’s Hawkeyes are one of a record four Big Ten teams in the regional semifinals with Michigan, Indiana and Maryland joining them. Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico is glad to be part of the breakthrough for the Wolverines.
“Things have changed. You could go somewhere else and you could have the opportunity right away to make an impact and create something that’s never been done before,” she said. “Those kids are different. They are special in their own right and they wanted to do something that has never been done before, and I’m thankful to coach a group of them.”