With two regular-season games remaining, South Carolina women’s basketball is firmly positioned as one of the top teams in the country as the NCAA Tournament picture begins to take shape.
The No. 3-ranked Gamecocks enter the final week of the regular season at 27-2 overall and 13-1 in the SEC, having already secured their fifth consecutive SEC regular-season title with last weekend’s victory over Ole Miss. Now, Dawn Staley and her program are beginning to shift their focus toward March.
According to ESPN’s latest bracketology projections released Tuesday, South Carolina remains one of four projected No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament. Analyst Charlie Creme ranks the Gamecocks third overall in his projections, behind only UConn and UCLA. As a top seed, South Carolina would host the first and second rounds of the tournament in Columbia.
The Road Ahead
Should the Gamecocks advance past the opening weekend, ESPN’s projections place them in the Fort Worth regional bracket for the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight rounds. The NCAA Tournament’s regional sites this year are Fort Worth and Sacramento.
South Carolina’s projected first-round opponent would be the winner of a First Four matchup between No. 16 seeds Alabama A&M and Chattanooga. A second-round game would then pit the Gamecocks against the winner of No. 8 Oregon and No. 9 Villanova.
The most formidable projected opponents in South Carolina’s regional bracket are No. 2 seed Iowa and No. 3 seed Duke. Iowa enters at 22-5 and sits ninth in the Associated Press Top 25 poll. Duke had a slow start to the season but has climbed back into the top 15 in recent weeks and projects as a legitimate threat.
Movement Within the Region
While South Carolina holds the same position it occupied in last week’s projections, there has been considerable shuffling among the other teams in its projected Fort Worth regional bracket. Only three teams from last week’s projection remain in the same region — Villanova, Colorado, and Georgia. Villanova holds steady at the No. 9 seed and Colorado at No. 12, while Georgia improved from a projected No. 7 seed to No. 6. The Bulldogs are the only team in the projected regional field that South Carolina has already faced this season.
Full Fort Worth Regional Projection
Based on ESPN’s latest bracketology, the complete projected Fort Worth regional bracket is as follows.
In Columbia:
No. 1 South Carolina,
No. 16 Alabama A&M or Chattanooga,
No. 8 Oregon, and
No. 9 Villanova.
In East Lansing:
No. 5 North Carolina,
No. 12 Mississippi State or Colorado,
No. 4 Michigan State, and
No. 13 Green Bay.
In Durham:
No. 6 Georgia,
No. 11 Fairfield,
No. 3 Duke, and
No. 14 McNeese.
In Iowa City:
No. 7 NC State,
No. 10 North Dakota State,
No. 2 Iowa, and
No. 15 LMU.
