After a long, stressful wait until Selection Sunday, the Virginia Cavaliers women’s basketball team is officially headed back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018.
Though it took a while (Virginia was the very last team to be revealed during Sunday evening’s bracket show), the ’Hoos were awarded a No. 10 seed by the selection committee. But as one of the last four at-large teams to make the cut, they
will head to the First Four in Iowa City, Iowa, on Thursday, where they’ll try to earn a spot in the main field.
Virginia, which was placed in one of the two Sacramento regions, will face fellow No. 10 seed Arizona State in its First Four matchup at 9 PM EST on Thursday. Coverage will be available on ESPN2.
With a win, the ’Hoos would earn the right to take on the seventh-seeded Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday, March 21st, in the Round of 64. That game, as with the First Four matchup, would be played in Iowa’s Carver-Hawkeye arena.
An NCAA Tournament bid was no sure thing for Virginia, which had to sweat it out on Selection Sunday after dropping its final three games of the season, including a one-and-done loss in the ACC Tournament to Clemson. Nevertheless, Coach Mox’s squad has punched its first ticket to the Big Dance under her tenure and the program’s 26th overall.
In the end, UVA’s critical road victory over then-No. 8 Louisville on February 22nd was the result that gave it just enough breathing room to survive a late swoon. The ’Hoos enter this week with a 19-11 overall record, ranked 36th in the NET, and with a 3-5 record against Quad 1 opponents (the metric that likely put Virginia over the top).
A strong 11-7 record in the ACC — a conference that produced a league-record nine NCAA Tournament bids — also gave the ’Hoos a strong case to be included in the field.
Though the ’Hoos were hoping for a longer stay in Duluth for the ACC Tournament, the 10-day break until Selection Sunday could be useful for a group that is looking to re-find its identity going into the NCAA Tournament.
“We had a really good week this past week, just to get back to what we were doing that was helping us win games,” Coach Mox told ACC Network’s Nothing But Net. “We did some team bonding, we had some really tough practices, we had some talks, we had some soul searching, and I felt like we got better this week.”
The Sun Devils, however, will be no small task for Virginia on Thursday evening. Arizona State boasts the nation’s 15th-highest-rated defense, according to BartTorvik.com, and a 12-9 record against top-100 teams in the NET.
But ASU has never had to deal with Kymora Johnson. Virginia’s superstar point guard will be making her first NCAA Tournament appearance after earning First-Team All-ACC honors again this year. Johnson is averaging 19.0 points and an ACC-best 5.9 assists per game this season while shooting 36.1% from beyond the arc.
“[Kymora] belongs on the big stage,” Coach Mox said. “She knew what she was coming to do here at UVA, and she has stayed true to that process … She wanted to come here and get her hometown school back on the map, and she’s done a great job of that. So, I’m happy that she gets to showcase her talent on the big stage.”
