South Carolina No. 1 overall seed in women’s 2023 NCAA Tournament

South Carolina is six wins away from becoming the 10th women’sbasketball team to go undefeated for an entire season, and theGamecocks will enter the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 overallseed.

Dawn Staley’s squad has been challenged a few times this yearbut has always pulled through. The defending national championswill play Norfolk State in the first round of the tournament, theNCAA selection committee revealed Sunday.

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While the Gamecocks, led by star Aliyah Boston, have been a lockto be the top seed for most of the season, several schools werevying for the other No. 1s, including Iowa, Indiana, Virginia Tech,Stanford and Utah. The Hawkeyes, led by electrifying guard CaitlinClark, have been a top seed twice before, in 1988 and 1992.

The Hoosiers, Hokies and Utes have never been No. 1s. Stanfordhas been a top seed 12 times, including the previous two years.

The tournament begins Wednesday with two First Four games. Thefull madness starts with 16 games Friday and 16 more the nextday.

South Carolina may have the easiest path to the Final Four inDallas as they won’t have to go far from home. The Gamecocks, whoare the 18th team to reach the NCAA tourney unbeaten, will playtheir first two games on campus before potentially heading 90minutes away to Greenville, South Carolina, for one of the tworegionals. The Gamecocks just won the Southeastern ConferenceTournament at that site.

The NCAA changed its format this season and is having tworegional sites for the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight rounds. Greenvillehosts one and Seattle the other.

UConn, which was the last team to go unbeaten and win the titlein 2015-16, is looking to extend its own history and reach theFinal Four for the 15th consecutive year. The Huskies had adifficult year with injuries. They finally started to get healthyheading into March. Star guard Azzi Fudd, who missed 22 games witha knee injury, returned for the Big East Tournament and helped theHuskies win it.

Four teams will be making their first appearance in thetournament: Southern Utah, Southeastern Louisiana, Sacramento Stateand Saint Louis.