2023 NCAA Women's Tournament Region-By-Region Preview

2023 NCAA Women's Tournament Region-By-Region Preview

South Carolina seeks immortality as repeat and undefeated champions. Can anyone stop the Gamecocks in the 2023 Women's NCAA Tournament?

Mar 16, 2023 by Kyle Kensing
2023 NCAA Women's Tournament Region-By-Region Preview

Can anyone stop South Carolina? That's the prevailing question head of the 2023 Women's NCAA Tournament, as the juggernaut Gamecocks seek a second straight national championship and place in rarefied air as undefeated at season's end. 

South Carolina can join Tennessee (1996-1998; 2007-2008) and UConn (2002-2004; 2009-2010; 2013-2016) as the only programs with repeat titles, and become the 10th undefeated champion in NCAA history if it runs the table. 


RELATED: Swin Cash, 2002 UConn Changed The Game 


The Gamecocks are the clear front-runners going into the Tournament, but plenty of worthy competitors will jockey to knock them from the mountaintop. 

Greenville 1 Region

Top overall seed South Carolina looms in a region also featuring a Maryland team that features one of the most electrifying scorers in the Tournament, Maryland's Diamond Miller. Miller averaged just shy of 20 points per game on 47.2 percent shooting from the floor. 

Out of the ACC, perennial contender Notre Dame earned the Greenville 1 Region's No. 3 seed behind the one-two punch of Sonia Citron and Olivia Miles. The two average 14.7 and 14.3 points per game, with Miles adding 7.3 rebounds per game. The duo are also adept at generating turnovers with more than 100 combined steals on the season. 

A pair of BIG EAST teams landed in the Greenville 1 Region with sixth-seeded Creighton and No. 9 seed Marquette. Both landed two players on the 1st Team All-BIG EAST roster with Lauren Jensen and Morgan Maly representing Creighton, and Jordan King joining Chloe Moratta from Marquette. 

Marquette is a potentially dangerous Second Round matchup for might South Carolina, having proven its ability to play with the nation's elite when it scored a historic win in February beating UConn. 

An opening-round matchup with USF is a tough one for the Golden Eagles, however. The Bulls are fixtures in the NCAA Tournament, and on the way to 26 wins, took one of the bracket's top teams, Ohio State, to the wire in San Diego. 

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Fourth-seeded UCLA is another team to watch in the Greenville 1 Region. The Bruins went 25-9 in the top-heavy Pac-12 and won the loaded Battle 4 Atlantis early in the season. 

Charisma Osborne and Kiki Rice are a pair of Swiss Army knife players who can do it all for the Bruins. 

Replay: Tennessee Vs. UCLA

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Greenville 2 Region

The emergence of Indiana in recent years ranks among the more remarkable developments, and the Hoosiers are reaching a crescendo heading into the NCAA Tournament. Mackenzie Holmes has outstanding all season as she comes into the postseason averaging 22.3 points per game. Holmes is also Indiana's leading rebounders at better than seven per contest. 

Combined with the dangerous 3-point touch of Sydney Parrish, Indiana boasts one of the most impressive inside-outside combinations in the Tournament. 

On the No. 5 line is Washington State, another incredible story. The Cougars won their first-ever Pac-12 Tournament to earn an automatic bid in the Big Dance, and are plenty dangerous coming off a run in Las Vegas that included wins a No. 2-seeded Utah team and UCLA. 

Awaiting Washington State if it can get beyond Florida Gulf Coast is a potential date with the BIG EAST Player of the Year, Maddy Siegrist. 


RELATED: Defining Moments of Maddy Siegrist's Villanova Career 

Siegrist and the Villanova Wildcats face No. 13-seed Cleveland State in 1st Round action. Meanwhile, the other side of the Greenville 2 bracket features an LSU team that was ranked near the top of the polls for much of the season and 2022 Elite Eight team NC State. 

LSU features Angel Reese, one of the best interior scorers in the game at 23.4 points per game on 54 percent shooting from the floor. She's also the best rebounder in the country at 15.5 a contest. 

Seattle 3 Region

ACC champion Virginia Tech earned the top seed behind the outstanding post player of Elizabeth Kitley. The 6-foot-6 center averaged 18.6 points per game and 10.5 rebounds per to lead the Hokies to a 27-4 record. 

Georgia Amoore, Taylor Soule and Kayana Traylor, meanwhile, all average in double-figures. Amoore is a dangerous 3-point shooter at 94 made on the season. 

Meanwhile, the Seattle 3 Region welcomes the two most historically successful and prominent programs in history with No. 2 UConn on one side of the bracket, and fourth-seeded Tennessee on the other. 

The Lady Vols recovered nicely from some early-season struggles with some quality wins in the SEC, including a defeat of LSU in the SEC Tournament. Rickea Jackson and Jordan Horston are a dynamite duo for Tennessee. 

UConn, meanwhile, faced unprecedented resistance from a much-improved BIG EAST. And still, the season ended with the Huskies on top after they ran through the conference tournament. 

The return of Azzi Fudd to the lineup has sparked UConn at the perfect time, as she joins Aaliyah Edwards to fuel last year's national runners-up in pursuit of yet another national championship. 

A potential Sweet 16 matchup with an outstanding Ohio State bunch could be in the cards for UConn. The Buckeyes went 25-7 playing a tough schedule, including the loaded Big Ten slate. 

Ohio State faces one of the more dangerous double-digit seeds in the Tournament, Sun Belt Conference representative James Madison. The Dukes have a prolific scorer in Kiki Jefferson who can dominant in the post and set out beyond the 3-point line. 

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Seattle 4 Region

2021 national champion Stanford headlines a Seattle 4 Region that also features one of the most exciting players in the country, Iowa's Caitlin Clark. Both sides have challenging brackets to navigate in order to reach that potential Elite Eight matchup, though. 

On Stanford's side of the bracket, a Louisville team that generated considerable Final Four buzz sits in the No. 5 spot — while No. 4-seed Texas also sparked its share of preseason title buzz. 

Texas rolls with a balanced offense featuring four scorers averaging from 11.4 to 12.7 points per game. DeYona Gaston is part of that quartet at 12.2 points a contest, and she's a solid rim protector averaging more than a blocked shot a game. 

Louisville's Hailey Van Lith is posting more than 19 points per game. That's one of the best marks in the NCAA Tournament, but overshadowed in the Seattle 4 Region by Clark's 27 a contest. 


The Iowa sensation delivered one of the most statistical impressive campaigns in recent memory, leading the Hawkeyes in rebounds at 7.5 a game and assists with 8.3. Her combo-guard role is the engine driving Iowa, but she plenty of spark plugs around her, including Monika Czinano's presence on the interior. 

Should Iowa have to jockey with Stanford for the Final Four bid out of the region, the Hawkeyes will need that size. The Cardinal boast one of the longest lineups in the nation with 6-foot-4 Cameron Brink, 6-foot-1 Haley Jones and 6-foot Hannah Jump all averaging in double-figures scoring. 

Brink and Jones both average more than nine rebounds per game, and young rotational post players Kiki Iriafen and Lauren Betts provide additional length in the rotation.