South Carolina, Indiana, Stanford, UConn projected as No. 1s

South Carolina, Indiana, Stanford and UConn can be the No. 1 seeds within the NCAA Event if it started now.

The NCAA girls’s basketball choice committee did its first reveal of the groups in line for the highest 16 seeds, though none of Thursday evening’s video games have been factored in, together with No. 2 Indiana’s win over No. 5 Iowa and Syracuse’s victory over No. 14 North Carolina.

“It was extremely arduous,” NCAA choice committee chair Lisa Peterson mentioned in a cellphone interview. “We joked that the one factor that was simple was placing South Carolina at No. 1. It’s a real testomony to the aggressive parity of girls’s basketball proper now.”

Peterson has been on the committee for 3 years and mentioned this season to date has been essentially the most troublesome in inserting groups.

“This was actually difficult,” she mentioned. “The committee talked longer than different high 16s I’ve been part of.”

The highest 16 seeds will host first- and second-round video games with the regional rounds being performed at two impartial websites for the primary time as a substitute of the standard 4. Seattle will host half of the Candy 16 and Greenville, South Carolina, will host the opposite eight groups.

South Carolina and Indiana have been projected as the highest seeds within the Greenville Regional with Stanford and UConn in Seattle. The unbeaten Gamecocks have been the general No. 1 seed.

Becoming a member of the Gamecocks of their bracket have been No. 2 Duke, No. 3 Maryland and No. 4 Ohio State. The Hoosiers would have No. 2 Utah, No. 3 Notre Dame and No. 4 Villanova.

The opposite high groups in Stanford’s area have been No. 2 Iowa, No. 3 Texas and No. 4 North Carolina. UConn can be joined by LSU, Michigan and Virginia Tech.

LSU was fifth within the general rankings regardless of being the one different undefeated group alongside South Carolina. Peterson mentioned the Tigers’ nonconference power of schedule was ranked 321st within the nation, which is what held them from being larger. LSU faces South Carolina on Sunday.

Groups simply outdoors the highest 16 included Florida State, Iowa State, Colorado, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

The Remaining 4 might be performed in Dallas on March 31 and the NCAA championship recreation is 2 days later. Dallas can be internet hosting the Division II and III championship video games on April 1.

The NCAA has been doing in-season reveals since 2015 to provide groups an early concept of the place they might be come choice evening. The NCAA can have another reveal on Feb. 23 earlier than the true seedings are introduced on March 12.

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AP girls’s school basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25