NC State joins hosts Duke, UNC in NCAA women’s bracket. Where and when they play
Two of the three ACC women’s basketball teams in the Triangle get to stay home for the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
The NCAA Tournament Selection Committee announced Saturday that Duke and North Carolina were among the Top 16 seeds and will host two opening-round games for the second season in a row.
Sunday, all three programs learned who they’ll face and, in N.C. State’s case, where it’s headed. This is the first time in two seasons that the Wolfpack has not been one of the host seeds, and only the second time in eight years.
Duke was the highest seed of the three schools, picking up a No. 3 seed. They will host No. 6 Baylor, the winner of a First Four game between Richmond and Nebraska, and No. 14 College of Charleston. The Blue Devils will be the first of the Triangle’s teams to play, tipping off at 11:30 a.m. Friday against Charleston on ESPN2.
If the Blue Devils advance out of Durham. They are set to play in Region 2 in Sacramento, California. UCLA is the top seed in the region, with LSU and Minnesota the second and fourth seeds.
Duke could have a rematch against Baylor in the second round. The Blue Devils fell to the Bears, 58-52, in the teams’ season-opener, when the two teams faced off in Paris.
The Blue Devils went 24-8 overall and 16-2 in ACC play, while putting together one of the greatest turnarounds of the season. They started the season 3-6. ESPN women’s hoops bracketologist Charlie Creme listed Duke in his “First Four Out” and “Next Four Out” in late December and early January.
Then, Duke rattled off 17 straight wins and eventually won its second consecutive ACC title, beating Louisville by five points in overtime.
Blue Devils head coach Kara Lawson said after the title game against Louisville that the ACC prepared her team for anything it could see in the tournament.
“We feel really prepared going into March,” Lawson said. “We’re not entitled. We know we’re going to have to earn it every single game, and we talk about that a lot. Like, you should have to earn it.”
Tar Heels stay home
North Carolina earned a No. 4 seed in its bracket. The Tar Heels will host No. 5 Maryland, No. 12 Murray State and No. 13 Western Illinois in Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels play Western Illinois in Game 1 on Friday at 5:30 p.m. on ESPNEWS.
UNC will play in Region 1, located in Fort Worth, if it advances out of the first weekend. Connecticut is the No. 1 seed, Vanderbilt is the No. 2 seed and Ohio State earned the No. 3 in the region.
The Tar Heels went 26-7 overall and 14-4 in ACC play. It picked up regular season wins over Duke and N.C. State.
“We’ve won 12 of our last 14. We’ve had a lot of Quad 1 wins in that stretch,” Carolina head coach Courtney Banghart said after her team’s ACC Tournament exit. “We’ve scheduled [tough opponents], so we’ve kind of done everything the committee has asked us to do. I don’t think there’s a team that if you look at from now, February and January, is playing better.
“And Carmichael is a great place to host an NCAA Tournament game. We know that. We’ve done that well. We sell that place out. If the committee does their job, I feel very confident.”
NC State’s NCAA draw
N.C. State rounds out the group after earning a No. 7 seed in Region 3, also in Fort Worth. It will play in Ann Arbor, Michigan, during the first weekend, facing No. 10 seed Tennessee in the Round of 64. That game is scheduled to tip off Friday at 8 p.m. on ESPN.
The Wolfpack would then face the winner of No. 2 Michigan, the host team, and No. 15 Holy Cross, if it advances from the first game.
Regional 1 is led by No. 1 seed Texas. Louisville snagged the No. 3 seed and West Virginia earned the No. 4 seed.
Game 1 will be a rematch for the Wolfpack and Volunteers, who faced off in Greensboro for the season opener. N.C. State won, 80-77, to start the year. Juniors Khamil Pierre and Zoe Brooks each recorded a double-double en route to the team’s first victory of the season.
The Wolfpack (20-10, 13-5 ACC) was a projected 2-seed to open the season, but it struggled to find its footing and win big matchups throughout the year. It lost to Duke, UNC and Louisville — another ACC host — in the regular season, while going one-and-done in the ACC Tournament.
“It hasn’t been the kind of season that we normally expect,” Creme said about the Wolfpack on Monday. “That’s obviously not the ideal place to be, because the top four or five teams in the country, I think, are decidedly better than the next group. So, your second round game is going to be played against UConn, UCLA, Texas or South Carolina. That’s not a great recipe for getting to the Sweet 16 or beyond, but they’ve sort of played themselves back.”
This story was originally published March 15, 2026 at 8:52 PM.
