ND, DePaul in Chicago Regional

Notre Dame was named the top seed Monday in the Chicago Regional of the NCAA Women’s Tournament.

The Fighting Irish (30-3), the defending national champs, open at home against Bethune-Cookman at 10 a.m. Saturday. A victory against the Wildcats and in the round-of-32 game against Michigan State or Central Michigan would advance the Irish to the Sweet 16 for games March 30 and April 1 at Wintrust Arena.

Baylor, Mississippi State and Louisville are the other No. 1 seeds. UConn is a No. 2 seed, the first time since 2006 that it isn’t a No. 1.

DePaul (26-7), the Big East tournament champion, earned the sixth seed in the Chicago Regional and opens at 2:30 p.m. Saturday against Missouri State in Ames, Iowa.

It’s the 17th consecutive berth for the Blue Demons. Only four schools have longer active streaks: Tennessee (38, every one since the tournament’s inception in 1982), Stanford (32), UConn (31) and Notre Dame (24).

Six Big Ten teams made the tournament: Iowa, Indiana, Michigan State, Michigan, Maryland and Rutgers.

The bracket mistakenly was released by ESPN hours before the network had scheduled its selection show. ESPN apologized and scrambled to air an early selection show to release the brackets while screenshots of the field were shared across social networks.

Men’s news and notes

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said that senior forwards Matt McQuaid (9.9 points per game) and Kenny Goins (8.3) can expect more playing time with Kyle Ahrens out with an ankle injury he suffered in the Big Ten tournament final.

“It’s a very, very bad sprain,” Izzo said. “He’s come back from the dead a couple of times, but I’m guessing that he’s done.”

♦ In the final AP poll before the tournament, Duke finished No. 1 with 58 of the 64 first-place votes. It was coach Mike Krzyzewski’s eighth No. 1 ranking in the final AP poll, breaking a tie with UCLA coach John Wooden for the most all-time.

♦ Ohio hired Stony Brook coach Jeff Boals to be its coach.

♦ Elon fired coach Matt Matheny.