March Madness 2023: Bubble teams at women’s league tourneys

The basketball calendar is getting crowded. Up first are the conference tournaments:

• The ACC Tournament runs through March 5 in Greensboro, North Carolina.
• The Big Ten Tournament runs through March 5 in Minneapolis.
• The Big 12 Tournament will be March 9-12 in Kansas City, Missouri.
• The Pac-12 Tournament runs through March 5 in Las Vegas.
• The SEC Tournament runs through March 5 in Greenville, South Carolina.

Selection Sunday is March 12, when brackets for First Four games (March 15-16) and first- and second-round games (March 17-20) are set at multiple sites across the country.

Sweet 16 weekend brings a twist this year for the women’s teams: There will be two regional sites instead of four with Greenville, South Carolina, and Seattle each hosting eight teams.

Where is the women’s Final Four? In Dallas, where the semifinals are March 31 and the championship game is April 2.

As it happens, the men’s Final Four is a four-hour drive down the road in Houston that same weekend.

Who’s going to win the national championship? The betting favorites as of this week to reach the Final Four are defending national champion South Carolina, Stanford, Indiana and UConn, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. The NCAA’s seeding prediction is a little different — Utah replaces UConn — and the top quartet in the AP Top 25 poll is: South Carolina, Indiana, Utah and LSU. So buckle up!

Nebraska (16-13) faces Michigan State in the 8-9 game of the Big Ten Tournament on Thursday and definitely needs a win to have any shot of making the NCAAs. The Cornhuskers have a quality 23-point win over Maryland in December and a 33-point victory over Illinois last week.

Arkansas (20-11) reached 20 victories for the first time since the 2019-20 season when it went 24-8 before COVID-19 prompted the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament. It may need to beat Missouri in an eight-nine seed matchup Thursday in the Southeastern Conference Tournament to secure its third straight bid to the NCAAs.

Syracuse (18-11) needed to rally late in the season to keep its NCAA chances alive and it did with wins over Miami and Pitt. That’s left the Orange as the last team in the field of 68, according to ESPN. Syracuse will look to enhance its chances at the ACC Tournament, starting Thursday against North Carolina State, a team once part of the top 10 that has slid out of the rankings.

No. 17 Michigan (21-8) hopes to keep its chances at hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament alive when it plays the winner of Penn State-Minnesota in the second round of the Big Ten tournament on Thursday. The Wolverines were the final team in the top 16 reveal last week.

Marist visits Iona on Thursday as the Gaels look to continue their remarkable turnaround as they go for a 17th consecutive victory. Iona was 11-16 last season and is 22-5 this year. The Red Foxes are playing their final few games under longtime coach Brian Giorgis.