No. 1 and close to home! Gamecocks learn path for 2022 NCAA women’s tournament
South Carolina is going into the NCAA tournament as a No. 1 seed for the second straight year.
The Gamecocks (29-2) clinched the top overall seed in this year’s tournament during the full NCAA bracket reveal Sunday night. South Carolina is assigned to play in the nearby Greensboro Regional, along with Iowa (2), Iowa State (3) and Arizona (4).
Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks start their campaign for a national title in Columbia on Friday, as Colonial Life Arena will host the tourney’s first two rounds Friday through Monday. USC won’t know its first opponent until the “First Four” play-in game between Howard and Incarnate Word is played.
Should the Gamecocks win their first-round game, they’ll move on to play the winner of No. 8 Miami vs. No. 9 South Florida before heading to Greensboro, North Carolina for the regional rounds.
USC’s regional assignment is close to Columbia, with just over 180 miles separating Greensboro Coliseum in North Carolina and Colonial Life Arena.
The Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight regional rounds will be held March 25-28.
The tournament ends with the Final Four at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota on April 1, and the national championship game on April 3.
This year’s NCAA women’s tournament is the first with an expanded 68-team pool, which includes two “First Four” games. The winners of those two games will play against No. 1 seeds in the Greensboro and Bridgeport regions.
Staley said she wasn’t a fan of the tournament’s expansion when the move was announced back in November.
“I wasn’t in favor of it,” Staley said on Nov. 17. “You know, it does create more opportunities for teams, but the first-round games aren’t as exciting as probably on the men’s side, so I don’t know if that is beneficial to the game.”
The Gamecocks learned their seed and regional destination during a Selection Sunday viewing party held at Colonial Life Arena. An open practice was held before Staley and Gamecock alums greeted an audience, as the crowd watched the Selection Sunday show on ESPN in the arena.
South Carolina heads into the NCAA tournament after suffering its second loss of the 2021-22 season, falling to Kentucky in the SEC tournament championship game after a fourth-quarter collapse one week ago. The Wildcats earned an automatic bid from the conference tournament win.
With a regular-season resume that included 11 wins over teams that were ranked in the AP top 25 (and two wins over fellow NCAA tournament No. 1 seeds Stanford and N.C. State), the Gamecocks didn’t lose their place as the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed, despite a conference tourney loss.
“Going into the NCAA tournament, it doesn’t feel good, but we’ve got a lot of feel-goods throughout the season that we’ll draw on,” Staley said after USC’s loss to Kentucky. “Obviously this was one of our goals of the season. It wasn’t the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is still very much in front of us, and we’ll buckle down and try not to be the sad faces that are in the locker room today in the next couple of weeks.”
Now, with no room for error and the SEC tournament loss behind them, the Gamecocks look to make their second straight Final Four run — hoping to earn Staley’s second NCAA championship this time.
It’s the first time in four years that Colonial Life Arena has hosted the NCAA women’s tournament. Games were held there in 2018, but Staley’s team played in Charlotte in 2019 when Columbia hosted the NCAA men’s tournament.
The 2020 tournament was canceled at the onset of the COVID pandemic. Last year’s event was held in a bubble environment entirely in San Antonio.
USC women’s basketball NCAA tournament history
Listed by year and with tournament seed, finish; 2020 tournament was canceled
2022 — No. 1 seed
2021 — No. 1 seed, Final Four
2019 — No. 4 seed, Sweet 16
2018 — No. 2 seed, Elite Eight
2017 — No. 1 seed, National champion
2016 — No. 1 seed, Sweet 16
2015 — No. 1 seed, Final Four
2014 — No. 1 seed, Sweet 16
2013 — No. 4 seed, second round
2012 — No. 5 seed, Sweet 16
