The Maryland women’s basketball team is a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament bracket released Monday. The Terps are in the Bridgeport region and will play No. 14-seed Bucknell in the first round in College Park on Friday.
In the Sweet 16, Maryland may play second-seeded Duke. And it’ll likely have to beat No. 1 overall seed UConn if it wants to advance to the Final Four. The Huskies are on an 107-game winning streak and are looking to win their fifth straight national title.
Terps coach Brenda Frese said she was “surprised” by her team receiving a No. 3 seed after many expected a No. 2.
“Watch us play. We had no bad losses, we had 30 wins, we won the regular season, we won the tournament,” Frese said. “We felt like we controlled our destiny and what we did is win.”
Maryland (30-2, 15-1 Big Ten) shared the conference regular season championship with Ohio State and won the Big Ten tournament with a 74-64 win over Purdue on March 5.
The Terps finished the season ranked No. 4 in the Associated Press Top 25, but the Terps’ poll rankings haven’t lined up with the NCAA Selection Committee’s all season. Maryland’s RPI ranks 16th in the nation, largely due to its 128th-best strength of schedule.
“We knew the NCAA was unhappy with our strength of schedule, so once again it’s not ideal, but we can’t control it,” guard Kristen Confroy said. “We are highly motivated and especially feeling a little bit disrespected.”
As one of the top-16 teams, Maryland will host first and second round games in Xfinity Center for the seventh consecutive year. Should the Terps advance Friday, they’ll play the winner of No. 6-seed West Virginia versus No. 11-seed Elon on Saturday.
The Mountaineers won the Big 12 Tournament with upset wins over Baylor, a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, and Texas, a No. 3 seed.
Duke (27-5) made a run to the ACC tournament championship game, while UConn again won its conference tournament title. The Huskies defeated Maryland, 87-81, on Dec. 29 to hand the Terps one of their two losses this season.
“It’s one of the toughest [draws for a No. 3 seed] I’ve seen,” Frese said.
The Terps were a No. 2 seed last season but took a disappointing loss to No. 7 Washington in the second round. Maryland reached the Final Four in both of the seasons before that, including in 2014 as a No. 4 seed.
“It’s just a number,” guard Destiny Slocum said. “We’re still the same Maryland team no matter what number is in front of it.”