RICE EARNS SPOT IN FIRST NCAA TOURNAMENT IN 14 YEARS
C-USA champions to play Marquette in College Station
The seed didn’t reflect the ranking, but the Rice women’s basketball team is nonetheless happy to be playing in its first NCAA Tournament in 14 years.
The Owls, whose No. 21 ranking would equate to a sixth seed, were seeded 12th in the Chicago Regional on Monday. They’ll face fifthseeded Marquette in College Station on Friday.
“I’m excited to play in the NCAA Tournament,” Rice guard Erica Ogwumike said. “I mean, I’ve never played before, but I’ve seen my sisters (former Stanford standouts and current WNBAers Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike) play in it multiple times, and now that we’ve worked up to play in it, I’m really excited about it.”
The Owls discovered their matchup prematurely — as did most teams around the country — due to a leak by ESPNU that revealed the bracket four hours prior to a selection show that had been scheduled for 6 p.m. Rice players and coaches scrambled to get to the Brian Patterson Center — where a watch party had been hastily rescheduled for a 4 p.m. telecast of the bracket — and found their seats just before teams in their regional were announced.
“It was still devastating to find out that it was leaked through Twitter, but like I said, not everyone gets to experience this,” Rice center Nancy Mulkey said. “It’s still a blessing, and we’re grateful.”
Rice (28-3) swept through Conference USA, going 16-0 to capture the regular-season title before winning three more games to claim the league’s tournament championship. The Owls are the first team to pull off that double perfecto in
C-USA and carry a 21-game winning streak — second longest in the nation — into the Big Dance.
Friday will mark the Owls’ third trip to the NCAA Tournament and first since 2005. That year, they lost their first-round game by 26 points to Georgia. In their first NCAA trip in 2000, they topped UC Santa Barbara before being eliminated by North Carolina — the last school to beat Rice in December.
“We’re focusing on who we’re playing now and to prepare for that team,” Mulkey said. “We’re very excited. This is a once-in-alifetime experience 14 years later getting to redo this.”
Marquette (26-7), which lost in the Big East tournament final, is ranked 18th nationally. The Golden Eagles last played the Owls in 2006 and are 2-0 in the series.
The Rice-Marquette winner will hang around College Station, advancing to a Sunday matchup against the winner between No. 14 Texas A&M and Wright State.
“We did see A&M,” Ogwumike said of the Aggies, who defeated Rice 65-54 in the season opener. “Where we’re playing is pretty awesome, too. We’re playing in College Station, which we’ve already played at this year, so we’re really excited about that. But we’re just going to take it one day at a time.”