Marty Gordon
Virginia Tech’s women’s basketball team is back in the Big Dance and will be the number four seed in the Portland bracket.
Despite the western bracket finals, Tech will host two first round games if they win. In the first game, the Hokies face Marshall. From there, they could face Baylor in Round two also in Blacksburg.
A total of eight teams from the ACC were named to the tournament.
In Regional Three (Portland), Virginia Tech, a No. 4 seed, will play host to No. 13-seeded Marshall, while the other matchup in Blacksburg will be No. 5-seeded Baylor versus No. 12-seeded Vanderbilt/Columbia.
Coach Kenny Brooks is glad to be playing at home for the first contest and maybe the second.
“I thought our body was work was worth a Fourth Seed and it’s great to be back in the Cassell,” he said during a video chat, following the tournament announcement.
Brooks admitted he was nervous, but he is so glad to play in front of the home crowd once again.
The Lady Hokies have the fourth longest home win streak in the nation. Hosting first and second round games in Blacksburg would be the second straight year and third time in program history.
Because Cassell Coliseum is designated as a neutral site by the NCAA, ticketing guidelines must follow NCAA processes and protocols.
Tickets will be available for purchase beginning on Monday, March 18, and will be available per session or for all sessions at once. All session adult tickets will be $50, and all session youth tickets will be $20. Individual session tickets will be $25 for adults and $10 for youth (under 18). All seating (excluding the student section) will be reserved.
The question remains is whether Tech will have its three-time ACC player of the year, Liz Kitley, back in the lineup. The head of the women’s selection committee told national reporters, injuries like Kitley’s did come into play for the final seeding.
Tech has kept information on her injury close to the vest and has not said anything in the past two weeks.
Typically, the university holds a watch party for the tournament seeding announcement. Not this year. Instead, the team held its own gathering without fans nor the media.
There had been some speculation that was because of Kitley’s questionable availability and the silence on her injury.
Brooks said her availability is still up in the air.
“This week will definitely determine that (if she will play).”
He said his senior’s long-term health is the most important thing at this point.
The exact injury is still not known.
Brooks would not rule out her appearance this week as the first game will be on Friday.
Marshall earned the Sun Belt Conference Championship with a thrilling 95-92 overtime win over James Madison.
With the win, Marshall will make its first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 1997 after earning the Sun Belt Conference’s automatic bid.
It continues a record-setting year for Marshall, who is now 26-6 in the first season under head coach Kim Caldwell.
“I can’t really even describe it!” Caldwell said. “They worked their tails off. The ball was not going in and they found a way to get it done. That sums up what this team has been about from the very beginning. It’s been heart, it’s been heart, it’s been heart. We’ve been thrown some tough breaks, but they’ve always found a way to get it done.”
The Herd got huge efforts out of several different players to lead to the victory. Meredith Maier notched team-highs of 20 points and seven rebounds while Aislynn Hayes added 19 points. Breanna Campbell added 15 points while Abby Beeman notched a double-double with 10 points and 11 assists and Mahogany Matthews added 10 points and five blocks.
Marshall forced James Madison into 39 turnovers, which led to 48 of the Herd’s 95 points in the contest. The Herd also grabbed 33 offensive rebounds against the nation’s top defensive rebounding team, which also led to 25 second-chance points that helped offset a tough shooting performance.
Baylor (24-7) will face the winner of Vanderbilt (22-9) and Columbia (23-6), who have the play-in game for the No. 12 seed, in Blacksburg.
Baylor is making its 20th-straight NCAA Tournament appearance and 22nd appearance overall. The Bears are 55-18 all-time in the Big Dance and have made 15 trips to the Sweet 16. Baylor’s 20th-consecutive appearance is the fourth-longest active streak in the country behind Tennessee (42), Stanford (36) and UConn (35).
For most of the season, Baylor was in the Top 20 but lost in their conference quarters to Iowa State.
Baylor women’s basketball had four individuals recognized with postseason honors on Tuesday, highlighted by Sarah Andrews’ selection to the All-Big 12 Second Team.
Alongside Andrews, Aijha Blackwell, Dre’Una Edwards and Darianna Littlepage-Buggs each earned an all-conference honorable mention.
For the third time in her career, Andrews received an all-conference nod with a selection to the All-Big 12 Second Team. The senior guard is averaging 9.8 points per game in league play while averaging a team-high 30 minutes per game. Andrews was one of 10 finalists for the Nancy Lieberman Award Watch List, and she eclipsed 1,000 career points earlier this season. The Irving, Texas, native turned in her second-career double-double in a win over UCF, and she has reached double-figure scoring in nine conference contests this year.
Blackwell earned her first career Big 12 postseason honor after missing a majority of last season due to injury. She has made 22 starts in 27 appearances, starting all but four conference games. With her fourth rebound at Houston, she reached 1,000 rebounds in her career, and she has turned in a team-best 11 double-figure rebounding performances this season.
Earlier in the week, the Charlotte Sports Foundation (CSF) and Ally Financial Inc. announced the lineup for the 2024 Ally Tipoff. This year’s event is scheduled for Sunday, November 10, 2024, at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte and will be a doubleheader, featuring #1 South Carolina taking on #11 NC State and a rematch of last year’s game with #2 Iowa and #13 Virginia Tech.
Last year’s meeting of Iowa and Virginia Tech was unforgettable with Iowa winning 80-76. The game featured superstar Caitlin Clark leading the Hawkeyes with 44 points and Georgia Amoore pacing the Hokies with 31 points, including a half court buzzer beater.
As much of a success the game was on the court, it equaled that success off the court as well. The game set a record with an attendance of 15,196, which is the largest regular season women’s basketball game in North Carolina history. Also, last year’s game averaged 548,000 viewers, which at the time was the most-viewed regular season women’s college basketball game on ESPN2 since 2017.
