Breaking down the bracket: A look at UConn's Spokane 4 Regional

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Headlines

News

• UConn lands as 2-seed in Spokane 4 Regional

• UConn unveils new uniforms ahead of NCAA Tournament

• Paige Bueckers and Sarah Strong named AP, USBWA All-Americans

Analysis

• Biggest questions facing UConn in the NCAA Tournament

• UConn not looking ahead to potential Elite Eight rematch with USC

• Chasing Perfection: Is this UConn's year?

Last week’s Weekly

• Why UConn will likely decide its own fate in the NCAA Tournament

Elsewhere

• UConn interested in Wisconsin center Serah Williams (Hearst CT)

Breaking down UConn's bracket

UConn women’s basketball will tip off the NCAA Tournament on Saturday afternoon in Storrs. While they shouldn’t have much trouble early on, there are some potential marquee matchups on their path towards a 12th national title.

Round of 64 — 15-seed Arkansas State

The Huskies will take on 15-seed Arkansas State in their opening matchup. The Red Wolves, winners of the Sun Belt Championship, upset overwhelming favorites James Madison in the conference tournament final to claim the automatic bid. That pushed JMU to one of the first four teams out of the bracket.

Arkansas State’s offense relies heavily on the three ball. The Red Wolves have scored 43 percent of their points from beyond the arc this season, the most of any team in Division I. However, that’s driven by volume of three point attempts rather than efficiency from deep. The Red Wolves shoot a mediocre 32.4 percent from deep and only one player, Kennedie Montue, shoots over 35 percent from deep.

UConn will have a significant size advantage in this contest as Arkansas State has just one player standing over 6-1 that averages significant minutes. In particular, the Huskies should be able to exploit that advantage on the offensive glass for second chance opportunities since the Red Wolves allow opponents to collect a third of their own misses on the season.

Storrs Subregional

The second matchup in the round of 64 at Storrs will feature 7-seed Oklahoma State and 10-seed South Dakota State. The Huskies will face the winner in the second round and Her Hoop Stats favors Oklahoma State with a 59.5 percent change of winning on a neutral floor.

The Cowgirls had their ups and downs this season. They’ve beaten the likes of 2-seed TCU and 4-ssed Baylor but also lost to Houston — the Cougars’ only Big 12 win of the season. The Cowgirls are led by sophomore Stailee Heard, who averages 16.7 points per game and shoots 40 percent from three.

South Dakota State is an experienced team that earned the automatic bid out of the Summit League. The Jackrabbits went undefeated in conference play and only have three losses this season — all of which came to teams in the field (1-seed Texas, 2-seed Duke and 9-seed Georgia Tech). Brooklyn Meyer leads the way for the Jackrabbits with 17.6 points per game, but all five starters average at least eight points per game for a balanced attack.

Spokane 4 Region

Should the Huskies advance to the second weekend, their Sweet 16 opponent would come from the Norman, OK subregional. The favorites to emerge are 3-seed Oklahoma, led in the post by Oregon State transfer Reagan Beers — who also considered UConn as a transfer destination last offseason. Beers is averaging 17.5 points and 8.9 rebounds per game while Payton Verhulst puts up 2.4 three pointers per contest to provide the Sooners with a threat on the outside as well.

6-seed Iowa is also in the Norman subregional, though the team looks quite different than the one UConn faced in the Final Four last year. Should Iowa reach the Sweet Sixteen, the Huskies would have a familiar matchup against former Villanova guard Lucy Olsen, who leads the Hawkeyes in scoring. Don’t count out Iowa’s first round opponent, No. 11 Murray State, for a cinderella run, though. The MVC champion boasts a dynamic scorer in Katelyn Young.

On the top of the region, a rematch with 1-seed USC and JuJu Watkins is the most likely outcome should UConn reach the Elite Eight, though 4-seed Kentucky would be the most likely candidate to upset the Trojans before that. The Wildcats are led by Nancy Lieberman Award finalist Georgia Amoore as well as Clara Strack, both who were a part of Virginia Tech’s Final Four squad in 2023. 5-seed Kansas State could also make a run if 6-6 center Ayoka Lee is healthy.

Other top seeds in the field

The winner of the Huskies’ Spokane 4 Regional will face the winner of Spokane 1 in the Final Four. No. 1 overall seed UCLA is the top ranked team in the region, followed by 2-seed NC State, which will look to make back-to-back Final Four appearances for the first time in school history. 3-seed LSU and 4-seed Baylor are also among teams that could emerge.

On the opposite side of the bracket, the winners of the Birmingham 2 and Birmingham 3 region will play in the second Final Four game. 1-seed South Carolina is the heavy favorite to emerge from Birmingham 2. Texas is the top seed in Birmingham 3, but the region also features 2-seed TCU and 3-seed Notre Dame. The Irish surprisingly fell to the three-line after losing three of their last five games entering Selection Sunday, but remain a title contender if they put the pieces together at the right time.

Best of social media

New Paige Bueckers ad with Nike:

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A court the Huskies hope to play on:

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