Notre Dame Women's Basketball Earns No. 2 Seed, Will Host NCAA Tournament Games

Notre Dame's late season hot streak earned the Fighting Irish a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament

Notre Dame women’s basketball is set to host first and second round NCAA Tournament games this week. The Fighting Irish found out during Sunday’s selection show that they are the No. 2 seed in the Albany 1 Region and will face No. 15 seed Kent State this Saturday at 2:15pm Eastern Time.

No. 7 seed Ole Miss (23-8) and No. 10 seed Marquette (23-8) will be in South Bend for the tournament this weekend as well. Marquette head coach Megan Duffy is a former Notre Dame point guard who played for the Irish from 2002-2006. The winner of that game will face the Notre Dame in the second round this weekend.

Notre Dame is hosting for the second consecutive year and the second time overall under fourth-year head coach Niele Ivey. The Fighting Irish have hosted first and second round NCAA Tournament games seven times since 2015 and 13 times since 2000. They have an all-time record of 24-2 in NCAA Tournament home games.

The Fighting Irish finished the pre-NCAA Tournament portion of their schedule by winning eight games in a row, including three games at the ACC Tournament to claim the program’s sixth ACC Tournament championship and the automatic bid that comes with it.

Notre Dame was on the outside looking in for hosting possibilities when the NCAA released its last pre-selection day top 16 rankings on Feb. 29. Being in the top 16 is a prerequisite to host NCAA games, because only teams that are seeded 1-4 in a region can be named first and second round host sites.

The Irish finished the season at No. 7 in the NCAA’s NET rankings. They have eight wins over teams that finished in the top 30 in the NET rankings. Six of those wins came during the current eight game winning streak.

Overall No. 1 seed South Carolina (32-0) is the No. 1 seed in Notre Dame’s region while Oregon State (24-7) and Indiana (24-5) are the No. 3 and 4 seeds in the region. All three of those teams will host tournament games this week as well. Notre Dame opened the season with a 100-79 loss to South Carolina in Paris, France. 

If Notre Dame wins its two games this week it will advance to the Sweet 16 for a third consecutive year for a potential matchup with Oregon State if it also wins its two games this week. A win in the Sweet 16 would set up a potential matchup with South Carolina or Indiana in the Elite 8. Notre Dame’s Sweet 16 and Elite 8 games would be played in Albany, N.Y.

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