Now the hardest part begins.
There was no doubt about it, but South Carolina women’s basketball earned its third consecutive No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament on Sunday night, setting up the path to a National Championship for the Gamecocks.
"It always feels good to be the No. 1 overall seed and to be undefeated," Dawn Staley said. "I'm excited because we get a chance to know what our path is to win a National Championship, and it's all great teams. There's a lot of familiar faces in our regin."
South Carolina will start its NCAA Tournament with the first two games at Colonial Life Arena, followed by a trip to Albany for the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight if the Gamecocks hold serve at home.
The tournament will start Friday in Columbia against either Presbyterian and Sacred Heart. Those two schools will meet in a First Four match-up for the right to face the Gamecocks, and if the Blue Hose win it would be a re-match from a regular season game the Gamecocks won 99-29.
Things could get very interesting in the second round as the Gamecocks will face either the No. 8 seed North Carolina or No. 9 seed Michigan State in Columbia. The Tar Heels gave South Carolina one of its closest calls of the season back on Nov. 30, a 65-58 nail-biter the Tar Heels led by double-digits in the first half in Chapel Hill.
The sweet 16 would mean a trip to Albany and a match-up against one of Indiana, Oklahoma, Fairfield or Florida Gulf Coast, with those four schools battling it out on the Bloomington pod.
If South Carolina reached the elite eight a rematch with Notre Dame from the Paris season-opener could be on the cards, as the Fighting Irish pulled the No. 2 seed in the Albany 1 regional along with Oregon State as the No. 3 seed.
"I think it helps our coaches that have the scout. But we're much different. Everybody is much different than they were three months ago, and we look forward to it. Whether it's Presbyterian, Sacred Heart, I just look forward to playing on Friday. It just seems like a very long time with us not having a game."
Elsewhere on the bracket the Albany 2 regional, which is on the opposite side of the bracket, features heavy-hitters Iowa, UCLA, LSU, Kansas State and Colorado together.
The other regional on South Carolina's side of the bracket houses Texas, Stanford, North Carolina State and Gonzaga as the top four seeds, with the winner of that regional emerging to play the winner of South Carolina's regional in the Final Four.
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