Kansas State women’s basketball team will host NCAA Tournament games as a No. 4 seed

The Kansas State women’s basketball team is heading back to the March Madness dance floor, and the Wildcats won’t have to travel far to get there.

K-State earned an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament on Sunday after the Wildcats won 25 games in the regular season. They will enter the event as a No. 4 seed in the Albany Region. Their opening game will be against No. 13 seed Portland at 3:30 p.m. on Friday. ESPNews will televise the action.

Head coach Jeff Mittie and the K-State women’s basketball roster learned about their postseason destination on Sunday evening while they viewed the selection show together amid raucous applause at a watch party on campus.

2024 NCAA Women's Bracket by The Kansas City Star on Scribd

Their seeding came as excellent news because they were chosen as a host team in the Big Dance. That means they will play first- and second-round games at home inside Bramlage Coliseum later this week. That will give thousands of purple-clad fans an opportunity to come out and support the Wildcats while they play in the postseason.

“I think it’s just awesome,” K-State guard Gabby Gregory said. “I have said it before, we have one of the best home-court advantages in the country. So to be able to take advantage of that will be absolutely awesome. I am hoping that we can sell Bramlage out. Obviously we haven’t done that yet for the women’s team but now is the time to do it. I would love to see a women’s sellout crowd. It would be electric.”

Game times and dates will be announced at a later time. K-State may begin the postseason as early as Friday or as late as Saturday, with second-round games taking place two days later.

A large group of fans watched the selection show right along with K-State coaches and players on Sunday. They cheered loudly when the Wildcats were selected as hosts.

In the men’s tournament, all games are played on neutral sites. But the top 16 teams in the women’s tournament get to play early games in their home arenas.

Hosting games in the NCAA Tournament has been a goal for this team all season. To make it happen on Sunday was a satisfying experience. Everyone knew it was going to be close as to whether K-State would host as a No. 4 seed or travel as a No. 5 seed.

“When we saw our name pop up on the screen we were all excited,” K-State guard Serena Sundell said. “We were hopeful that we would be able to host but nobody knew going into tonight. It is super exciting to be able to host and have two games in Manhattan.”

Other teams in the Manhattan sub-regional are No. 12 seed Drake and No. 5 seed Colorado. The Wildcats respectfully said they didn’t know much about Portland yet, other than it is a quality opponent from the West Coast Conference. But they know all about Drake and Colorado. The Buffaloes started this season with a surprising upset over LSU.

If K-State advances through the bracket it could end up playing No. 1 seed Iowa for the third time this season in the Sweet 16. The Wildcats beat the Hawkeyes on the road and dropped a game to them in a mid-season tournament. They also played last season in Manhattan, with K-State winning at home.

Other top teams in the Albany regional are No. 2 seed UCLA and No. 3 seed LSU.

Much like them, K-State will start the NCAA Tournament at home.

“It’s a huge thing for your program to be one of the top 16,” Mittie said. “And not just be one of the top 16 in some AP poll or a coaches poll. To go through the entire season and have people say you earned the top 16 is a big deal. Playing at home is also big. We have played really well here.”