The LSU women’s basketball team is going dancing once again.
On Sunday, the Selection Show for the women’s bracket announced that the LSU Tigers (27-5) were the No. 2 seed in the Sacramento 2 region. The Tigers’ first-round opponent will be the 15th-seeded Jacksonville Dolphins. Tipoff is set for Friday, March 20th, inside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Start time to be determined.
This is the fifth consecutive season that the Tigers earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament, and the second seed is the highest the program has earned in this stretch. The Bayou Bengals were a three seed the previous four years.
The Tigers are the lone Louisiana-based women’s program to punch their ticket.
If LSU takes care of business, they’ll take on the winner of No. 7 Texas Tech and No. 10 Villanova. That potential second-round matchup would take place on Sunday, the 22nd, or Monday, the 23rd. The Sweet 16 and Elite 8 will be played in Sacramento, California.
The Tigers began the regular season 14-0 before opening SEC play with losses to Vanderbilt and Kentucky. After that, they won six in a row before losing to Texas and South Carolina within a three-game stretch. The program’s fifth loss came to the Gamecocks in the SEC Tournament after putting up 112 versus Oklahoma.
MiLaysia Fuwiley was the team’s big addition out of the transfer portal. The junior guard came from South Carolina and became the team’s highest point-per-game scorer (14.6) and was the conference’s 6th Woman of the Year.
You can listen to all of the action of the LSU women’s tournament run on Mustang 107.1.
For the third straight year, the McNeese Cowboys (28-5) have made it to the dance in the men’s bracket.
McNeese earned the No. 12 seed in the South Region in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and will face the No. 5-seeded Vanderbilt Commodores (26-8). Tipoff is set for Thursday, with time to be determined. Vandy is initially listed as a 10.5-point favorite on some sportsbooks.
McNeese was the lone Louisiana-based men’s basketball program to make the tournament for the second year in a row. If the Cowboys were to upset the Commodores, they would move on to face the winner of No. 4 Nebraska and No. 13 Troy that weekend.
Head coach Bill Armstrong took over the program after Will Wade left for NC State at the end of last season, and the Cowboys didn’t miss a beat. In his first season, coach Armstrong led McNeese to a 28-5 record and a third consecutive tournament birth after winning the Southland Conference Tournament.
With McNeese earning another tournament bid, coach Armstrong was rewarded with a contract extension. The new deal is worth $1.985 million over five years and is the second-richest contract in program history.
Freshman phenom Larry Johnson has been nothing short of pivotal to McNeese’s success. Johnson led the team in points per game (17.5), rebounds per game (5.5), and broke program legend Joe Dumars’ freshman season-long scoring record before the end of the regular season.
Make sure to stay up to date with the Tigers and Cowboys throughout their tournament runs by visiting espnsouthwestlouisiana.com and finding each team’s gamer stories.