{"id":206342,"date":"2026-03-16T03:06:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T03:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/206342\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T03:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T03:06:14","slug":"uconn-ucla-texas-and-south-carolina-earn-no-1-seeds-in-womens-ncaa-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/206342\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn, UCLA, Texas and South Carolina earn No. 1 seeds in women\u2019s NCAA Tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the 15th time in program history, UConn is the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Huskies earned the honor after an undefeated 31-0 regular season \u2014 their 11th in program history<\/a> \u2014 and three more Big East tournament wins en route to a conference title.<\/p>\n

UConn is looking to become the first repeat champion since the Huskies accomplished the feat in 2015-16 as part of a four-year championship dynasty.<\/p>\n

As expected, UConn was joined as a No. 1 seed by UCLA, Texas and South Carolina.<\/p>\n

The Longhorns leapfrogged the Gamecocks to earn the third No. 1 seed \u2014 and a trip to Fort Worth for the regional round \u2014 with a victory against South Carolina in the SEC tournament championship.<\/p>\n

\"NCAA
\n \"NCAA<\/p>\n

BEAT OUR EXPERTS<\/p>\n

Predict how you think the tournament will
play out. Can you beat one of our experts?<\/p>\n

If the Huskies defend their NCAA title with six straight wins, it will mark the third 40-0 season in NCAA women\u2019s basketball history, joining Baylor in 2012 and UConn in 2014.<\/p>\n

UConn had been the top seed in each of the top-16 seeding reveals during the season and did nothing to relinquish its perch. Although speculation brewed that one-loss UCLA might overtake the Huskies with more than twice as many Quad 1 wins (19 to 9), the Bruins slotted below UConn on Selection Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe observable component was talked about a whole lot,\u201d selection committee chair Amanda Braun said on the ESPN broadcast. \u201cThe way we watched UConn win and win throughout the year, from the beginning to the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

The top four seeds all played in last year\u2019s Final Four, where UConn dominated UCLA in the semifinals before blowing out South Carolina for the championship. This season\u2019s bracket sets up a collision course between UConn and UCLA in the title game.<\/p>\n

First
Round<\/p>\n

Second
Round<\/p>\n

Sweet 16<\/p>\n

Elite
Eight<\/p>\n

Final
Four<\/p>\n

Final
Four<\/p>\n

Elite
Eight<\/p>\n

Sweet 16<\/p>\n

Second
Round<\/p>\n

First
Round<\/p>\n

The Huskies may have to get through the nation\u2019s two leading scorers to get back to the Final Four, with Audi Crooks and Iowa State as the No. 8 seed, and Mikayla Blakes and Vanderbilt as the No. 2 seed. The Commodores were close to getting on the top line, but coach Shea Ralph could instead face a reunion with her alma mater in the Elite Eight.<\/p>\n

In addition to Vanderbilt, the other No. 2 seeds were LSU, Michigan and Iowa. The Commodores, Wolverines and Hawkeyes stayed on the No. 2 line despite embarrassing losses in their conference tournaments, with Michigan\u2019s inclusion the most surprising. Duke might feel slighted by dropping to a No. 3 seed after winning the ACC regular-season and tournament titles, but a head-to-head loss to LSU in the ACC-SEC challenge likely doomed the Blue Devils.<\/p>\n

With UCLA, Michigan and Iowa in the top eight, the Big Ten led the way with 12 teams in the field. The SEC had 10, the ACC nine and the Big 12 eight.<\/p>\n

It was a tough field to crack for mid-majors, as Richmond was the only non-automatic qualifier to make the tournament out of a non-power conference. The Spiders likely benefited from a strong showing in 2025, when they beat Georgia Tech in the first round. North Dakota State, despite winning the Summit League, found itself on the wrong side of the bubble, and Columbia fell out of consideration with two late losses to Harvard. Meanwhile, Nebraska made the tournament despite losing seven of its last nine.<\/p>\n

The committee created potential for rematches galore, starting in Sacramento Region 4, where South Carolina will have a rematch in the second round against Clemson or USC. It could also meet Iowa for the third time in four years. The Hawkeyes could also face Georgia (and Iowa alum Katie Abrahamson-Henderson) for the second time in three seasons. In Sacramento Region 2, UCLA could repeat its regional path from 2025 against Ole Miss and LSU, then meet Texas in the Final Four after losing to the Longhorns in November.<\/p>\n

The committee did not pit many transfers against their former schools. After putting Hailey Van Lith, who had transferred to LSU, in the same pod as Louisville for two consecutive seasons, the bracket spared Ole Miss\u2019 Cotie McMahon and TCU\u2019s Olivia Miles from facing their former teams, Ohio State and Notre Dame, respectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the 15th time in program history, UConn is the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4855,2706,29450,795,5024,27,29,537,28,792,796,14445],"class_list":["post-206342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-connecticut-huskies","tag-iowa-hawkeyes","tag-lsu-lady-tigers","tag-michigan-wolverines","tag-south-carolina-gamecocks","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-texas-news","tag-ucla-bruins","tag-vanderbilt-commodores","tag-womens-college-basketball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}