Early NCAA bracket reveal places Kentucky, Louisville in same women’s regional
Is it possible we’ll still have a chance to see Kentucky face Louisville in women’s basketball this season?
When the NCAA revealed its projected top 16 seeds for the 2021 postseason tournament on Monday night, U of L and UK were placed in the same region — the Cardinals as the No. 1 seed and the Wildcats as the No. 4.
If the brackets played out that way, Kentucky would meet Louisville in the second round of the 64-team tournament.
The Wildcats and Cardinals did not schedule their annual regular season rivalry game in 2020-21 because of the limits COVID-19 placed on scheduling non-conference contests.
The teams have played each other 56 times through the years, including at least one time each season beginning in 1974-75. The series also includes 16 meetings between 1912 and 1924.
Kentucky leads the all-time series against Louisville 34-22. Louisville won the most recent meeting, 67-66, in Rupp Arena on Dec. 15, 2019.
The women’s basketball selection committee annually reveals the top 16 seeds twice before the bracket is drawn for the NCAA Tournament.
For the past few years, earning one of the top 16 seeds would give a team home games in the first two rounds of the tournament. This year though, because of the coronavirus pandemic, the entire NCAA Tournament will be played in the San Antonio area. The last four rounds will be at the Alamodome.
That made Monday night’s announcement strictly a promotional ploy. Still, the results shed light on the selection committee’s line of thinking ahead of Selection Monday on March 15.
“You see what’s on the committee’s radar at this moment,” NCAA women’s basketball selection committee chair Nina King said.
UConn, which moved up to No. 1 in The Associated Press poll on Monday, was named the No. 1 overall seed, followed by South Carolina, Stanford and Louisville.
UConn’s region would include Arizona, Baylor and Tennessee as the other three top seeds. South Carolina’s group has Maryland, UCLA and West Virginia. Stanford has North Carolina State, Georgia and Indiana. Louisville would be joined by Texas A&M, Oregon and Kentucky.
“I would say that for every line we had a healthy amount of debate,” King said.
That made bracketing easier for the committee as they didn’t have to worry about geography and putting teams closer to home for the regionals.
“It was great. We were done bracketing fairly quickly,” King said. “It’s a lot easier and the S-curve is our priority. There are a few principles for establishing the bracket we had to follow and we moved a couple teams around. One main one was avoid conference matchups until a regional final. Kentucky is in a region with Louisville as opposed to a region with South Carolina.”
The Southeastern Conference had the biggest presence in the top 16 with five teams. The Pac-12 had four.
Michigan and South Florida have both lost only once this season, but were left out of the reveal. Both teams have had long pauses because of COVID-19. King said they were among the next nine teams in discussion for a top 16 seed. Those two schools were joined by Arkansas, DePaul, Georgia Tech, Gonzaga, Missouri State, South Dakota State and Washington State.
The NCAA will have one more reveal on March 1 before the bracket is unveiled on March 15.
Kentucky, ranked No. 17 by the AP, improved to 15-5 overall and 8-4 in the SEC with an 88-80 win at Florida on Monday night. No. 3-ranked Louisville is 19-1 overall and 12-1 in the ACC.
Top 16 seeds
The order of seeding revealed by the NCAA’s women’s basketball selection committee on Monday night:
1. UConn
2. South Carolina
3. Stanford
4. Louisville
5. Texas A&M
6. North Carolina State
7. Maryland
8. Arizona
9. UCLA
10. Baylor
11. Oregon
12. Georgia
13. Tennessee
14. West Virginia
15. Indiana
16. Kentucky