ATHENS -- No complaints.
That was the key sentiment of the Georgia Lady Dogs, who learned during the NCAA Tournament selection show Monday night that they would be a 3 seed in the Alamo Region of this year’s event and face 14th-seeded Drexel (14-6) in the first round.
It was the 34th time UGA has been represented in the field of the women’s national tournament — which ties Stanford for second on the all-time list — and its highest seed since 2007.
“We’re excited just to be playing when you look at last year and us having to stop playing in the middle of everything,” said Joni Taylor, who was named SEC coach of the year this season. “We’re excited just to get this far and compete in the NCAA Tournament. But we’re also excited about representing the University of Georgia and being a 3 seed and we’ll get to work on Drexel immediately.”
Georgia and Drexel will meet at noon Monday, March 22 at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio. The game will be televised on ESPN2.
Georgia was one of seven SEC teams chosen for the field of 64. Arkansas (19-8) is the only other conference team in its region and they could only meet in the region final.
Like the men’s tournament, the entire women’s tournament is being competed in one city — San Antonio. The regions were named for areas in that famous Texas city: Mercado, Hemisfair, Alamo and Riverwalk.
In the Alamo region, the Bulldogs are very likely to run into sixth-seeded Oregon (13-8), No. 2 seed Louisville (23-3) and Stanford (25-2). Taylor was adamant about not discussing any team beyond Drexel, but also expressed confidence in her teams to win the region.
“We can go really, really far,” Taylor said. “What the SEC Tournament proved to us is that we are one of the best teams in the country and we have the opportunity to go compete for another championship.”
Georgia has never won an NCAA Championship in women’s basketball. The Lady Bulldogs have played in 88 NCAA tournament games, including 20 Sweet 16 appearances, 11 Elite Eights and five Final Fours. But they haven’t been beyond the final eight since 2013.
Taylor admitted to not knowing much at all about Drexel. The Bulldogs took the entire week off after losing to South Carolina in the finals of the SEC Tournament on March 7. Georgia took the Gamecocks (22-4), who are the 1 seed in the Hemisfair Region, down to the wire in the championship game and that has taken a while to get over.
“It was heavy in the locker room Sunday, obviously,” Taylor said. “South Carolina is really, really good but to play the way we played, we just didn’t make enough plays and ran out of time. But it’s balancing the emotion of being extremely sad we didn’t do what we came to do and taking a moment to appreciate what we’ve done and realize that, if we keep playing like we’ve been playing, we’re peaking at the right time.”
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