Women's Fastbreak On SI

Rebecca Lobo Makes Strong Assertion About South Carolina NCAA Tournament Placement

Basketball icon Rebecca Lobo got honest about the South Carolina Gamecocks' road to the Final Four.

Grant Young

Mar 31, 2022; Minneapolis, MN, USA; ESPN analyst Rebecca Lobo poses during NCAA Womens Final Four press conference at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Mar 31, 2022; Minneapolis, MN, USA; ESPN analyst Rebecca Lobo poses during NCAA Womens Final Four press conference at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The NCAA women's basketball selection Sunday is underway, and there have been several extremely compelling pieces of news to come out of what has been announced.

Perhaps the most notable is that the South Carolina Gamecocks were not granted the No. 1 overall seed, as it was instead given to the UCLA Bruins after they beat the USC Trojans in the Big Ten Conference Tournament.

This marks the first time that the Gamecocks did not receive the tournament's No. 1 overall seed since 2021.

However, while Dawn Staley likely won't be happy about this, there's an argument to be made that the Gamecocks (who are still a No. 1 seed in the tournament) have an easier path to the Final Four than the Bruins.

Among the teams in South Carolina's region are Duke, North Carolina, Maryland, and Alabama. As for UCLA, teams in their region include NC State, LSU, Baylor, and Ole Miss.

Basketball legend and ESPN analyst Rebecca Lobo made a powerful claim about South Carolina's opposition in their region, as she said during ESPN's Selection Sunday reveal, “But if you look at the bracket as a whole, and if you’re South Carolina or a South Carolina fan, there’s not necessarily a team here whose style or makeup makes you feel any kind of trepidation.

"You feel pretty good, matchup wise," she added.

Hearing this sentiment from Lobo has got to make Gamecocks fans feel better about where they ended up in the NCAA Tournament. Of course, the beauty about March Madness is that every game could make for an upset.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.

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