NCAA Bracket
NEW YORK – For the second consecutive year, three BIG EAST teams heard their names called Monday night during the Selection Show, earning bids to the 2017 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. Winning its first BIG EAST Tournament title just over a week ago, Marquette received the league’s automatic bid and was tabbed a No. 5 seed, for its first NCAA appearance since 2011. BIG EAST co-regular-season champions DePaul and Creighton earned at-large selections, with the seventh-seeded Blue Demons making their 15
th consecutive NCAA appearance and the seventh-seeded Bluejays qualifying for the NCAAs for the first time as members of the BIG EAST Conference. Three additional BIG EAST squads learned their seasons would continue in the WNIT in the hours that followed, as Villanova, Georgetown and St. John’s qualified, with match-ups not yet announced.
Garnering the highest seeding by a BIG EAST team since conference realignment, fifth-seeded Marquette will travel to Coral Gables, Fla., and face 12
th-seeded Quinnipiac on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. (ET) on ESPN2, in the NCAA Tournament First Round. The winner of that 5-12 matchup will face the winner of fourth-seeded host Miami and 13
th-seeded FGCU. The Golden Eagles, ranked 25
th in today’s
USA Today Coaches’ Poll, are making their 10
th NCAA trip overall and third as a member of the BIG EAST, showing a 4-9 record, 2-2 since joining the BIG EAST.
DePaul heads to Starkville, Miss., where the Blue Demons face 10
th-seeded Northern Iowa on Friday at noon (ET) on ESPN2. The winner of the 7-10 matchup will face the winner of second-seeded host Mississippi State and 15
th-seeded Troy. DePaul, ranked 19
th in both national polls today, is making its 22
nd NCAA Tournament appearance and is coming off a trip to the Sweet 16 last season, its second in three years. The Blue Demons were runners-up in the BIG EAST Tournament last week, advancing to the title game for the third time in four seasons.
Creighton will travel to Corvallis, Ore., to face 10
th-seeded Toledo on Friday at 7:30 p.m. (ET) on ESPN2. The winner of the 7-10 matchup earns a date with the winner of host and second-seeded Oregon State and 15
th-seeded Long Beach State. The Bluejays’ NCAA berth is their first as a member of the BIG EAST Conference and sixth overall, last dancing in 2013. Creighton broke into the top 25 last week before falling in the BIG EAST Tournament Semifinals, garnering its first national ranking since 1992.
The BIG EAST earns three or more bids for the 20
th time in conference history, while Marquette and Creighton become the second and third schools to see both men’s and women’s basketball programs earn NCAA Tournament berths in the same season since conference realignment. Seton Hall became the first school to achieve the feat last season. DePaul, St. John’s and Seton Hall made NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament trips last season, with the Blue Demons’ march to the Sweet 16 highlighting the league’s 2-3 record. The BIG EAST is a combined 98-37 (.726) all-time in First Round games and 235-131 (.642) in all NCAA Tournament contests.
BIG EAST Teams In The NCAA Tournament
First Round – Friday – Starkville, Miss.
No. 7 DePaul vs. No. 10 Northern Iowa, Noon
First Round – Friday – Corvallis, Ore.
No. 7 Creighton vs. No. 10 Toledo, 7:30 p.m.
First Round – Saturday – Coral Gables, Fla.
No. 5 Marquette vs. No. 12 Quinnipiac, 1:30 p.m.
All games Eastern and subject to change, airing on ESPN2