UConn a 3-seed in Portland Regional 3, to face 14-seed Jackson State in first round

UConn women’s basketball is a 3-seed in the Portland 3 Region and will play 14-seed Jackson State in the first game of the NCAA Tournament at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs. The Huskies will host the first two rounds before heading west for the second straight year — assuming they advance that far.

Dates, tip-times and television information will be announced tomorrow.

This is UConn’s lowest seed in the tournament since 2005 when it was also a 3-seed, and only the second time since 1994 that it’s not on the top two seed lines.

Assuming the Huskies win — a safe bet considering they have won an NCAA Tournament game every year since 1993 — they’ll play the winner of 6-seed Syracuse and 11-seeds Auburn/Arizona.

Jackson State won the SWAC and is in its third NCAA Tournament in the last four seasons.

Elsewhere in Portland Regional 3, USC is the 1-seed, Ohio State is the 2-seed, and Virginia is the 4-seed. UConn has made 29 straight Sweet Sixteens. If they make it 30, the Huskies could face the Buckeyes in a rematch of last year’s Sweet Sixteen.

In other UConn-adjacent teams, Shea Ralph made her first NCAA Tournament with Vanderbilt as a 12-seed while former Husky forward Carla Berube and her Princeton Tigers are a 9-seed in Albany Regional 2. If the Tigers win, they’ll play 1-seed Iowa.

Along with UConn, three teams from Connecticut made the field: Fairfield, a 13-seed in Albany 1 against 4-seed Indiana, and Sacred Heart, 16-seed in a play-in game against fellow 16-seed Presbyterian in Albany 1. The winner will have the right to play No. 1 overall seed South Carolina. Two other New England schools are in the tournament: Maine, a 15-seed, and Holy Cross, another 16-seed in a play-in game.