Field leaked early; Uconn doesn’t get No. 1 seed
NEW YORK— Baylor, Notre Dame, Mississippi State and Louisville are the No. 1 seeds in the women’s NCAA Tournament, leading a March Madness field that was revealed early thanks to a production error.
The bracket was mistakenly put out 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.
“In working with the NCAA to prepare for tonight’s Women’s Selection Special, we received the bracket, similar to years past. In the midst of our preparation, the bracket was mistakenly posted on ESPNU,” the network said in a statement. “We deeply regret the error and extend our apology to the NCAA and the women’s basketball community. We will conduct a thorough review of our process to ensure it doesn’t happen in the future.”
In 2016, the men’s bracket was leaked during the selection show, reverberating on Twitter and elsewhere as fans wondered if the picks were accurate.
The No. 1 Lady Bears are the top team in the Greensboro Regional, while defending champion Notre Dame is the first choice in Chicago. Mississippi State is the No. 1 team in the Portland Regional, where Oregon is the second seed. Louisville is the top choice in the Albany Regional, where No. 2 Uconn potentially awaits.
“We’re thrilled to have the season we’ve had. We played an outstanding schedule. At the end of the day, I thought we might be going to Albany as 1 or 2,” said Louisville coach Jeff Walz, who won’t coach the Cardinals’ opening game against Robert Morris because he will be serving a onegame suspension for using profane language toward NCAA officials during the Final Four last year.
It’s the first time since 2006 that the Huskies (31-2) aren’t a No. 1 seed. Uconn will try to continue its record Final Four run, looking to advance that far for the 12th consecutive year.
Tennessee sneaked in to the field as a No. 11 seed. The Lady Vols (1912) have been in every NCAA Tournament since the first one in 1982.
“We felt Tennessee and other teams in our last four in had significant wins,” NCAA selection committee chair Rhonda Lundin Bennett said.
The women’s tournament begins Friday. The Final Four takes place in Tampa, Florida, on April 5, with the championship game two days later.
Other top seeds in Greensboro are No. 2 Iowa, No. 3 N.C. State and No. 4 South Carolina.
Mississippi State and Oregon will be joined by Syracuse and Miami as host teams in the Portland Regional.
The Fighting Irish will potentially play their first two games at home before only having to drive 90 minutes to Chicago for the regional. Other top teams in the Irish’s region are Stanford, Iowa State and Texas A&M.
The ACC leads the way with eight teams in the field, while the SEC has seven. The Big Ten and Pac-12 each have six teams.
Buckeyes to WNIT
Ohio State accepted a bid to the WNIT and will host Morehead State on Wednesday. The time of the game will be announded Tuesday.