Louisville, SC, Stanford, NC State top teams in NCAA reveal

Louisville joined South Carolina, Stanford and North Carolina State as top seeds if the women's NCAA Tournament began now.

The NCAA selection committee did its second reveal of the teams in line for the top 16 seeds on Thursday, although none of Thursday night's games were factored in.

Tennessee was a top-seed in the first reveal on Jan. 22, but the Lady Vols dropped three of four games to fall to No. 3.

The top 16 seeds again will host the first- and second-round games, a year after the entire tournament was played in San Antonio because of COVID-19 concerns. While the coronavirus is still causing problems throughout the country, the NCAA expects to be able to play the tournament in its normal locations, including at campus sites for the first weekend.

Bridgeport, Greensboro, Spokane and Wichita will host the regionals and Minneapolis has the Final Four on April 1 and 3.

The No. 1-ranked Gamecocks were still projected to be the top seed in the Greensboro region. They would be joined by Indiana, Baylor and Oregon. N.C. State would be the top team in the Bridgeport Region and would have Michigan, UConn and Texas with them. The Huskies were projected in the original reveal to move out west to Spokane.

'œIt worked out that way. We didn't say 'Let's put UConn in Bridgeport,''ť NCAA selection committee chair Nina King said.

Stanford is still No. 1 in that region and would be joined by Iowa State, Tennessee and Notre Dame. Louisville is the top seed in Wichita with Arizona, Oklahoma and LSU.

'œThe top two lines were pretty much all set," King said. 'œThere was much more discussion on the 3s and 4s'ť

Oklahoma and Notre Dame entered the top 16 this time, while Georgia and Kansas State fell out.

'œOklahoma is playing well and the teams they are beating are really good,'ť King said. 'œNo question, we talk about them a lot during the last reveal, they were just on the outside.'ť

King said the next few teams in discussion for the top 16 included Georgia Tech, Maryland and Georgia.

The NCAA will do one more reveal on Feb. 28 before the actual seedings are announced on selection Sunday on March 13. NCAA Vice President for women's basketball Lynn Holzman told the AP that the plan is to move the selection show back to Monday next year.

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