ASU women earn No. 2 region seed for NCAA Tournament
Mar 14, 2016, 5:45 PM | Updated: 6:07 pm
Arizona State head coach Charli Turner Thorne watches from the sideline in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in the Pac-12 Conference tournament, Friday, March 4, 2016, in Seattle. California beat Arizona State 75-64. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
TEMPE, Ariz. — Momentary concern turned to pleasant surprise for the Arizona State women’s basketball team when the NCAA Tournament brackets were announced Monday evening on ESPN.
Despite losses in their final two games, including the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament in Seattle, the Sun Devils (25-6) earned the No. 2 seed in the Sioux Falls Regional and will host No. 15 seed New Mexico State (26-4), the WAC champ, on Friday at 4:30 p.m. in Tempe. The No. 2 seed is the highest seed the program has ever achieved in the NCAA Tournament.
“After our Pac-12 Tournament showing we were just going to take our 3-seed and be happy,” ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “But we had the No. 1 RPI conference in the nation and we shared the Pac-12 championship (with Oregon State) and we went 16-2.
“I absolutely think it was our schedule. Even some of our losses were close games against top teams.”
ASU lost to South Carolina by two points early in the season and also fell to Kentucky, a No. 3 seed, in overtime. The Gamecocks (31-1) earned the No. 1 seed in the Sioux Falls Region while Ohio State is the No. 3 seed and Syracuse is No. 4. The Sun Devils won at Syracuse earlier this season and own wins over six tournament teams: Syracuse, Hawaii, Florida State, Stanford (twice), Washington (twice) and UCLA.
Rounding out the Tempe subregional of the Sioux Falls Regional are No. 7 Tennessee and No. 10 Wisconsin-Green Bay. Tennessee was led by legendary coach Pat Summitt until 2012. Turner Thorne credits Summitt with helping ASU build its program.
ASU hadn’t yet made an NCAA Tournament appearance under Turner Thorne when the Sun Devils’ coach convinced Summitt to bring the powerhouse Vols to Phoenix for the first NCAA women’s outdoor game at Bank One Ballpark in December of 2000.
“Pat Summitt helped us put our program on the map,” Turner Thorne said. “We are forever indebted to her and it’s great to have such a storied program here.”
Three-time defending champion Connecticut earned the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed in the Bridgeport bracket while Baylor and Notre Dame are the tournament’s other top seeds. The women’s’ Final Four will be held in Indianapolis on Apr. 3 and 5.
ASU has advanced to six Sweet Sixteens in its history and four under Turner Thorne, including last season. The program’s best finishes were in the Elite Eight in 2007 and 2009, also under Turner Thorne.
