Tennessee Lady Vols are in the NCAA Tournament for the 43rd straight year, landing as a five-seed in the Birmingham Region with a first weekend trip to Columbus.
The Lady Vols are facing 12-seed South Florida in their first round matchup before facing either four-seed Ohio State or 13-seed Montana State in the Round of 32. With Tennessee not landing as a top 16 seed, they’ll likely have to defeat Ohio State on the Buckeyes home court to advance to the Sweet 16.
Other top seeds in the Birmingham Region include one-seed Texas, two-seed TCU, three-seed Notre Dame, six-seed Michigan and seven-seed Louisville.
Kim Caldwell’s first Tennessee team enters the NCAA Tournament with a 22-9 (8-8 SEC) record. The Lady Vols earned big wins over Alabama and most notably UConn at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center. Tennessee also lost a multitude of tight games this season including losses by five or less points against LSU (twice), Oklahoma, Texas and Vanderbilt.
However, Tennessee is struggling entering the NCAA Tournament. The Lady Vols have lost three of their last four games including a blowout loss at Kentucky and a home loss against a bad Georgia team.
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South Florida is in the NCAA Tournament after winning the American Athletic Conference. The Bulls had lost two straight games ahead of the AAC Tournament but defeated Tulane, North Texas and Rice in consecutive days to punch their ticket.
The Bulls finished third in the AAC in the regular season and played seven ranked or power five teams in the regular season. USF beat Duke in Durham but suffered losses against UConn, Vanderbilt, Louisville, Mississippi State, TCU and South Carolina.
Ohio State enters the NCAA Tournament with a 25-6 (13-5 Big 10) record after finishing third in the Big 10 this season. Three of the Buckeyes six losses came against either UCLA or USC, two of the top five teams in the country.
The Lady Vols are the only program that has made the NCAA Tournament for the 43rd straight season. Tennessee will face South Florida on Friday but the tipoff time has not been announced yet.
