Familiar role for Huskies:
UConn, the lone unbeaten team, will be vying for its 12th national championship.
UConn is back in a familiar place — the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament.
Joining the Huskies as top seeds Monday were Notre Dame, Louisville and Mississippi State.
The Huskies enter as the lone unbeaten team and will vie for their 12th national championship. It’s the ninth time that UConn has entered the NCAAs undefeated, including last year when the Huskies were the overwhelming favorites before their winning streak ended at 111 games 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 matchup for UConn in the Albany Regional. The Gamecocks are seeded second.
The Lexington Regional is stacked with former NCAA Tournament winners, with Baylor the No. 2 seed, Tennessee the No. 3 and Stanford the No. 4. Baylor was relegated to a No. 2 despite winning 31 of 32 games.
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. With most of their players back from last season’s runner-up finish — including Morgan Williams, who hit the game-winner in overtime to knock off UConn — the Bulldogs hope to make another deep NCAA run.
Oklahoma got in the field with a 16-14 record — the fewest wins for an at-large team since 2005 — a day after the Oklahoma men got an at-large berth with an 18-13 record and losses in 11 of their final 15 games. Gaels in WNIT: St. Mary’s will play Thursday at New Mexico in the first round of the 64-team Women’s NIT. The Gaels (20-10) were the WCC runners-up. The Lobos (23-10) finished sixth in the Mountain West. Big West Conference regular-season champ UC Davis (25-6) also is in the WNIT field. Purdue and West Virginia are the top seeds.
Women’s poll: UConn finished No. 1 in the Associated Press poll for the fifth straight year. The Huskies (32-0) received all 32 first-place votes. Baylor, Louisville, Mississippi State and Notre Dame followed UConn in the poll. Stanford is No. 15.
Romar returns: Lorenzo Romar is returning to Pepperdine for a second stint as men’s head coach. The 59-year-old former University of Washington head coach is the lead assistant at Arizona. He guided the Waves from 1996 through ’99, going 42-44 in his first head-coaching job, then was head coach at Saint Louis before 15 years at the helm of UW, where he was a threetime Pac-12 Coach of the Year.
Terry to UTEP: Texas-El Paso hired Rodney Terry as its men’s head coach. The Texas native went 126-108 in seven seasons as the head coach at Fresno State, taking the Bulldogs to the postseason three times and winning the Mountain West Conference tournament in 2016, when Terry led the team to 25 wins.
San Diego wins: Cameron Neubauer (16 points) was one of six San Diego players to score in double figures as the host Toreros (19-13) picked up an 88-72 victory over Hartford (19-14) in the CIT.
Men’s poll: Virginia (31-2) earned all 65 first-place votes to remain on top for the fifth straight week, the past two by unanimous counts. The top four teams matched the NCAA Tournament selection committee’s No. 1 seeds: Villanova (30-4) stayed at No. 2. Xavier (28-5) was third and Kansas (27-7) jumped five spots to fourth. St. Mary’s (28-5), which missed the NCAA Tournament, is ranked No. 25.