STORRS — The UConn women’s basketball team enters the 2024 NCAA Tournament with its lowest seed since 2005 after drawing the 3-seed in the Portland 3 regional.
UConn (29-5) will host the first two rounds at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, opening its tournament against 14-seed Jackson State. The Tigers went undefeated in the SWAC this season with three of their six non-conference losses coming against teams currently ranked in the top 15.
UConn’s bracket is headlined by 1-seed USC, who landed on the top line for the first time since the legendary Cheryl Miller’s senior season in 1986. The Trojans are led by freshman phenom JuJu Watkins averaging 27 points and 7.2 points per game and won their first Pac-12 championship since 2014 last week.
The Huskies landed in a west coast regional for the second straight season under the two-region system after they traveled to Seattle in 2023. UConn suffered a historic upset to 3-seed Ohio State as a 2-seed in last year’s tournament, marking UConn’s first exit before the Final Four since 2007.
UConn earned the automatic bid from the Big East as tournament champions, but Creighton and Marquette will also represent the conference as a 7-seed and10-seed respectively. Creighton plays 10-seed UNLV at UCLA’s host site in the Albany 2 regional, while Marquette faces 7-seed Ole Miss at 4-seed Indiana’s site in Bloomington.
The 2024 NCAA Tournament will be Paige Bueckers’ first since leading the Huskies to the national championship game in 2022. The superstar guard missed all of last season with an ACL tear but is averaging a career-high 21.3 point plus 4.8 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 2.1 steals and 1.4 blocks per game in a remarkable comeback. The Huskies also return top forward Aaliyah Edwards for March Madness after the senior sat out most of the Big East Tournament with a broken nose.
Two other Connecticut-based teams, Sacred Heart and Fairfield, also made the 68-team field. Sacred Heart will play a First Four game against Presbyterian to earn the 16-seed slot against No. 1 South Carolina. Fairfield, which earned its first-ever AP Top 25 ranking this season, will open as a 12-seed against Indiana.