Stanford, UConn, NC State and South Carolina take first seeds in NCAA women’s tournament

Stanford, UConn, the state of North Carolina and South Carolina were awarded the first seeds for the NCAA women’s tournament, with the cardinal winning first place overall.

The female key revealed on Monday night came in the wake of UConn’s announcement that coach Geno Auriemma tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday. He is not showing any symptoms, according to the school’s release on Monday, and is isolating himself at home.

The Huskies are scheduled to leave for San Antonio on Tuesday morning and will play at High Point on Sunday when the opening round games begin. If they win, they play their second round on March 23, with Auriemma eligible to return to the team on March 24.

Other first round games will be in Austin and San Marcos, Texas, with Sweet 16 onwards being held at the Alamodome in San Antonio. The Women’s Four Final is April 2, with the national championship set for April 4.

The four regions are named after San Antonio landmarks, with Stanford as the main seed in the Alamo Regional, UConn in the River Walk Regional, NC State in the Regional Market and South Carolina in the Regional Hemisfair.

It is Wolfpack’s first No. 1 seed, which reached the 1998 Women’s Four Final as No. 4 seed. NC State is the only one of the first seeds that has not won a national championship.

UConn has 11 NCAA titles, Stanford two and South Carolina one. The Huskies were on the 12th Final Fours and won the championship for the last time in 2016.

Seeds # 2 are Louisville (Alamo), Baylor (River Walk), Maryland (Hemisfair) and Texas A&M (Market). All, except Louisville, were once national champions.

The ACC led all conferences with eight teams on the field, including Wake Forest, which is making its first appearance in the tournament since 1988. The SEC and Big Ten each have seven teams, the Pac-12 six and the Big 12 five.