Duke, UNC among four ACC teams included in NCAA women’s basketball top 16 seed reveal
The first peek at the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee’s thoughts on the March Madness tournament bracket featured plenty of ACC flavor.
The initial top 16 reveal, announced Thursday night, showed Duke, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech and UNC representing the ACC.
Duke was placed as a No. 2 seed along with Utah, Iowa and LSU.
Notre Dame was on the No. 3 seed line with Maryland, Texas and Michigan.
The No 4 seeds were Virginia Tech, UNC, Ohio State and Villanova.
The four No. 1 seeds are South Carolina, UConn, Stanford and Indiana.
The committee, chaired by Pac-12 senior associate commissioner for sports management Lisa Peterson, planned two reveals prior to announcing the official NCAA tournament bracket on March 12. The next and final one will be Feb. 23.
“Today’s first top-16 reveal proved very difficult because of the amount of parity we are seeing in our game this season,” Peterson said in a statement. “The next 32 days before Selection Sunday will be very telling for all of the teams earning top-16 seeds today and for all of the other teams chasing them.”
Tournament play starts with the First Four games and first and second round games played at campus sites. Teams seeded in the top four of their regional get the right to be a host site for those early round games. That means teams included in Thursday’s top 16 announcement have currently put themselves in position to play on their home court for two NCAA tournament games.
Earlier this week, Duke coach Kara Lawson said that aspect of bracket talk is most important.
“I think it’s a good goal to have to be hosting and in the first second rounds,” Lawson said. “I don’t know what the percentages are, I’d have to look them up. But I would guess that a majority of teams that get to host in the first second rounds probably advanced....There’s no question for us to play in Cameron, in the first and second rounds would would be appealing.”
Duke (21-3) leads the ACC with an 11-2 league mark after blasting Boston College 68-27 on Thursday night. The Blue Devils are ranked No. 9 in the Associated Press top 25.
This year, in a change from past tournament formats, two arenas will house the regional semifinal and final games rather than teams traveling to four sites for Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games. Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena and Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina, are the two sites.
The committee’s Thursday reveal showed the Greenville 1 regional bracket included reigning NCAA champion and current No. 1-ranked South Carolina (23-0) with Duke, Maryland and Ohio State as the top four seeds. The Greenville 2 regional bracket has Indiana, Utah, Notre Dame and Villanova in the top four positions.
Seattle Regional 3 included Stanford, Iowa, Texas, and UNC, while Seattle Regional 4 included UConn, LSU, Michigan and Virginia Tech.
Notre Dame (19-4, 10-3 ACC) is second in the ACC standings behind Duke. Virginia Tech (19-4, 9-4) is a game behind Notre Dame.
UNC (17-7, 8-5) is riding a two-game losing streak after Syracuse beat the Tar Heels, 75-67, on Thursday night.
This story was originally published February 10, 2023 at 6:45 AM.