UConn, Irish are top seeds
With a 107-game winning streak under their belts, the Huskies will open Bridgeport Regional play against Albany.
NEW YORK — UConn’s drive for five will begin at home.
Winners of 107 straight games, coach Geno Auriemma and the Huskies won’t have to leave the state of Connecticut in the NCAA Tournament until the Final Four as they try for an unprecedented fifth consecutive national championship.
The top seed will open at home on Saturday against Albany and if they advance to the Bridgeport Regional would have a short drive there.
While the Huskies won’t have to leave the state until potentially heading to Dallas for the national semifinals, the other No. 1 seeds aren’t as lucky.
South Carolina is the top seed in Stockton, California. The Gamecocks are headed out of the Eastern time zone for the third time in four seasons. The Gamecocks’ lone trip to the Final Four came when they played a regional in Greensboro in 2015.
“I don’t know what more we can do,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “We won our conference tournament to play closer. Two years ago, we got sent to Greensboro. Last year, we had to take the time zone flight, over two time zones. I thought it was our turn to get flipped back to the Greensboro kind of ideology. I’m not going to say it’s not fair. But they got to figure out a different way.”
NCAA selection committee chair Terry Gawlik defended the choice to send South Carolina out west again.
Baylor is the No. 1 in the Oklahoma City Regional and Notre Dame is the top choice in Lexington, Kentucky.
“It made the most sense for the good of the game and the student-athlete experience to go out to Stockton and have Baylor go to Oklahoma City,” she said.
All four hope to get to Dallas for the Final Four on Friday, March 31. The NCAA switched the national semifinals back to a Friday-Sunday format this season for the first time since 2002. The Huskies would matchup with Baylor while South Carolina and Notre Dame would play if all four teams advance that far. The Lady Bears are hoping to make the short drive from Waco to Dallas.
That scenario may be unlikely. Last year, the Huskies were the only top team to make the Final Four as Washington, Syracuse and Oregon State all pulled off upsets to advance.
UConn, which has won a record 11 national championships, is the prohibitive favorite to win again. Unlike the past few years where it almost seemed a foregone conclusion that UConn would win the title, the Huskies weren’t the favorite coming into the season with big losses to graduation.