UW-Green Bay will go up against Minnesota

The UW-Green Bay women’s basketball team got a dance partner that was really sweating out the NCAA Tournament selection show Monday night.

The seventh-seeded Phoenix (29-3) will face No. 10 Minnesota (23-8) in a Spokane Regional game in Eugene, Ore., on Friday. The game is set for 4 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN2.

The NCAA revealed Sunday night the final eight teams under consideration for the last four spots in the tournament, and Minnesota was among them.

Green Bay clinched the automatic berth with its Horizon League Championship victory over Wright State on March 6. The Phoenix will be making its 18th appearance in the NCAA Tournament, and is in for the ninth time in the last 10 seasons.

The Golden Gophers and Phoenix have met 13 times with Minnesota owning a 7-6 record in those match-ups. The teams last met on March 19, 2014, when the Gophers prevailed, 62-60, in the WNIT.

That's the only postseason contest between in the series that dates back to 1991.

Meanwhile, Connecticut is back in a familiar place – the No. 1 overall seed.

Joining the Huskies as top seeds are Notre Dame, Louisville and Mississippi State.

The Huskies enter as the lone unbeaten team and will be vying for their 12th national championship.

It’s the ninth time that UConn has entered the NCAAs undefeated, including last year when the Huskies went in as the overwhelming favorite before their 111-game winning streak ended with a loss to Mississippi State in the Final Four.

Defending national champion South Carolina and A’ja Wilson await as a possible Elite Eight match-up for UConn in the Albany Regional. The Gamecocks are the two-seed.

“What can you do?” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “You have to beat some pretty good teams. Is it an impossible feat? Obviously not. We saw that last year.

“If we’re in the position where we have to play them, we’re going to play them. We’re going to give it our best shot and let the chips fall where they may.”

The Gamecocks lost by 25 at home against UConn on Feb. 1.

Florida State and Georgia are the other top seeds in the Huskies’ part of the bracket.

“Brackets are brackets. There are good teams in every bracket,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “There are great match-ups in every bracket and it doesn’t really matter at this stage where you’re placed, what region, you’re going to have to beat some really good teams. The schedule we play, I knew we’d get somebody two or three that we already played. We know that.”

Mississippi State is a No. 1 seed for the first time in school history.

The Bulldogs won their first 32 games this season before losing to South Carolina in the SEC title game. The Bulldogs hope to make another deep NCAA run.