Girls’s March Insanity bracket winners, losers, subsequent steps

There will not be a rematch of the nationwide championship recreation in ladies’s faculty basketball in 2024, however LSU vs. Iowa may very well be a blockbuster of an Elite Eight matchup. If each even get that far, that’s.

Who’re the winners and losers of the ladies’s NCAA event bracket? We begin on the losers’ facet, and it begins with the final two groups standing in 2023. Each aren’t going to make it to Cleveland. In truth, neither one is perhaps there.

The Albany 2 Regional has three groups that many might need picked to make the Closing 4 earlier than the bracket was revealed: defending nationwide champion LSU, nationwide runner-up Iowa and UCLA.

Who thought this was a good suggestion? Apparently the NCAA choice committee, which determined to jam-pack that trio collectively, together with No. 4 seed Kansas State.

As ESPN analyst Rebecca Lobo stated, South Carolina, the No. 1 general seed within the event and high seed within the Albany 1 Regional, earned — and obtained — what seems to be the so-called “best” regional bracket. Iowa — a No. 1 seed for the primary time since 1992 — ought to have earned the second-easiest nook of the bracket, however as a substitute acquired the toughest.

The Large Ten event champion Hawkeyes, SEC event runner-up LSU and Pac-12 semifinalist UCLA have been all within the high 4 within the preseason Related Press ballot and are within the high eight now. In fact, ballot rankings are one factor and NCAA event placement one other. Nonetheless, it is a shock to see all of them collectively.

“Initially, I simply thought, ‘Oooh, this can be a powerful, powerful area,'” LSU coach Kim Mulkey stated of her first response to the bracket.

Let’s additional break down the ladies’s bracket winners and losers, and what the trail forward appears to be like like for unbeaten South Carolina and Caitlin Clark and Iowa.

Winners

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South Carolina Gamecocks

Two-time nationwide champion South Carolina is in Albany 1 Regional together with No. 2 Notre Dame, No. 3 Oregon State and No. 4 Indiana. The Irish are the ACC event champions and are taking part in properly, however the Gamecocks take pleasure in having confronted them already this season. That was again in November in Paris — a 29-point Gamecock victory — and each groups have since grown rather a lot.

The Gamecocks have been so good they have been most likely going to be “winners” no matter their bracket matchups. However coach Daybreak Staley needs to be happy with the trail in entrance of her workforce.

Middle Kamilla Cardoso will miss South Carolina’s opener towards the Presbyterian-Sacred Coronary heart winner after her ejection for combating within the SEC event last. That will probably be of little consequence in that recreation. However the Gamecocks will probably be glad to have her again towards the winner of North Carolina-Michigan State, the 8-9 matchup.

Offered the Gamecocks get by means of to the Candy 16 — they final fell within the second spherical in 2013 — they may face a No. 4 seed Indiana workforce that hopes to be a lot more healthy since its quarterfinal loss within the Large Ten event.

If there may be an Elite Eight matchup between South Carolina and Notre Dame, we’ll see two of the perfect freshmen within the nation within the Gamecocks’ MiLaysia Fulwiley and the Irish’s Hannah Hidalgo. However South Carolina’s inside presence and depth ought to take the Gamecocks by means of to Cleveland.

Ivy League

The convention acquired two groups within the area: Ivy Insanity champion Princeton and runner-up Columbia. It is simply the second time two Ivy groups reached the sector (Penn and Princeton superior in 2016).

The Tigers and Lions each completed 13-1 in league play, with Columbia handing Princeton its lone league loss, 67-65 on Feb. 25 in New York.

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USC Trojans

Not since 1986, Trojans legend Cheryl Miller’s senior yr, had this system earned a No. 1 seed till Sunday. USC, the highest seed within the Portland 3 Regional, has had a breakthrough season, thanks largely to JuJu Watkins, the highest freshman in a stellar rookie class. However because the Trojans proved in successful the Pac-12 event last when Stanford targeted on shutting down Watkins, USC is extra than simply its younger celebrity.

The Trojans have waited a very long time — since 1994 — to host the early rounds of the NCAA event once more, in order that’s thrilling for USC, too.

USC appears to be like to have path to the Elite Eight, the place an epic showdown with Paige Bueckers and No. 3 seed UConn — by far essentially the most embellished workforce on this nook of the bracket – may await.

Texas Longhorns

The Large 12 event champion earned its first No. 1 seed since 2004. The Longhorns, like fellow No. 1 seed Iowa, did not win their convention regular-season title however did win the league event.

After shedding star guard Rori Harmon for the season in late December to a knee harm, Texas needed to navigate Large 12 play with out her. They misplaced to Baylor, Kansas State and regular-season champ Oklahoma twice. Within the Large 12 event, the Longhorns beat Kansas, Ok-State and Iowa State, with freshman Madison Booker successful MVP honors.

Texas has made the Elite Eight twice since Vic Schaefer took over as coach in 2020-21. He stated after the Large 12 last that he thought the Longhorns had confirmed they deserved a No. 1 seed. The committee agreed.

“If you win a championship in a league, you play the schedule these youngsters have performed, I do not know what else we may do,” Schaefer stated. “I really feel actually assured on this workforce. They’ve achieved nothing however present me that they will do it.

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UConn Huskies and Tennessee Woman Vols

Each groups may make waves within the bracket. UConn ran the desk within the Large East this season. The Huskies may very well be motivated by a possible revenge matchup with Ohio State within the Candy 16, because the Buckeyes knocked UConn out of the event in that spherical final yr.

Tennessee, the Portland 4 Regional No. 6 seed, comes into the NCAA event smarting from a last-second loss to South Carolina within the SEC semifinals. However the Woman Vols know from the best way they’ve performed the Gamecocks that they will compete with anybody.

Tennessee’s potential path to the Candy 16, which might possible contain a win at No. 3 seed NC State within the second spherical, is not simple. However the Woman Vols have an opportunity.

Losers

Iowa Hawkeyes

Final season, Stanford — the No. 1 seed in Iowa’s regional — was eradicated within the second spherical by Ole Miss. The Rebels have been subsequently defeated by Louisville, which then fell to Iowa within the Elite Eight.

It wasn’t a simple path to the Closing 4 for the Hawkeyes in 2023, however it appears simpler on reflection to what they may face this season in Albany 2.

The potential issue begins within the second spherical. The Hawkeyes, who should not have bother of their opener towards the Holy Cross-UT Martin winner, would face the 8-9 West Virginia-Princeton winner subsequent.

Final yr, Georgia’s capability to defend Iowa made for a nerve-wracking second-round win for the Hawkeyes. It may very well be comparable in the event that they face West Virginia, which leads the Large 12 in steals. Towards Princeton, Iowa would face a program that upset Kentucky two years in the past.

Ought to seeds maintain, Iowa could have a 3rd assembly this season vs. Kansas State; the groups performed twice in November, with the Wildcats successful the primary and the Hawkeyes the second. Middle Ayoka Lee gives the muscle inside for a Ok-State workforce that pushed Texas within the Large 12 semifinals.

If Iowa makes the Elite Eight towards both No. 2 UCLA or No. 3 LSU, one of many greatest points will probably be how the Hawkeyes fight the dimensions inside for each groups.

UCLA Bruins

Placement-wise, the Bruins would not thoughts buying and selling spots with their Pac-12 rivals Stanford in Portland 4 or USC in Portland 3. But it surely did not work out that approach after UCLA fell to the Trojans within the Pac-12 event semifinals. The Pac-12, in its last season as we all know it, has three groups within the high two seeds for the primary time in convention historical past. UCLA seems to have the hardest path of the three.

The Bruins received an AIAW championship in 1978. But it surely’s honest to say UCLA is the perfect program to by no means make the ladies’s Closing 4 within the NCAA period, which started in 1982. Throughout elements of this season, the Bruins appeared as if they’d a powerful probability to make that breakthrough in 2024. We’re not ruling them out, particularly with a fifth-year senior chief in Charisma Osborne and a stellar sophomore class that features 6-foot-7 publish Lauren Betts.

However being on this regional makes it harder for the Bruins. If seeds maintain, they must get by means of LSU and Iowa back-to-back, two very several types of groups. Can UCLA do it? Sure, however it’s an actual problem.

LSU Tigers

The defending champs, the No. 3 seed in Albany 2, additionally match into our bracket losers. Nonetheless, their path does not appear fairly as powerful as that of Iowa or UCLA. For 3 causes: One, they’ve already performed the perfect workforce within the nation, South Carolina, twice. The Tigers misplaced their SEC regular-season and event matchups with the Gamecocks, however they hung with them each instances. Second, LSU received the NCAA title final season, beating Iowa within the last, so the Tigers ought to face this regional with confidence. Third, Mulkey already has 4 nationwide championships as a coach. That is her time of yr.

Miami Hurricanes

Final yr, the Hurricanes have been one of many greatest tales of March on the ladies’s facet. A No. 9 seed, they beat No. 8 Oklahoma State, No. 1 Indiana and No. 4 Villanova to achieve the Elite Eight, the place they misplaced to eventual nationwide champion LSU.

However final yr’s mojo did not carry over for Miami to 2024. The Hurricanes went 19-12 general however have been 8-10 within the ACC. Victories over NCAA event groups NC State, Duke and North Carolina weren’t sufficient to offset a few of Miami’s losses.