CNN
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After final 12 months’s match gripped the nation, the ladies’s bracket of this 12 months’s March Insanity has loads to reside as much as.
The LSU Tigers are the reigning champions after defeating the Iowa Hawkeyes in a dramatic nationwide championship sport final season, successful this system’s first ever NCAA ladies’s basketball title.
It was a sport that pitted two stars, Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, in opposition to one another; a rivalry which sparked debate lengthy after the ultimate buzzer sounded.
The pair are each again in motion this 12 months, and whereas Clark’s Iowa start their marketing campaign on Saturday, Reece is ready for motion on a blockbuster opening day.
March Insanity ladies’s video games may be watched reside throughout ABC and ESPN channels.
The primary sport to tip-off within the ladies’s bracket can be between No. 8 seed North Carolina and No. 9 Michigan State at 11.30 a.m. E.T., with the sport being proven on ESPN2.
LSU (No. 3) vs. Rice (No. 14) – 4 p.m. ET on ESPN
Reese is without doubt one of the match’s largest stars, following her essential position in propelling LSU to its first ever ladies’s school basketball title final 12 months.
Though LSU earned a No. 3 seed on Choice Sunday after succumbing to defeat in opposition to South Carolina within the SEC Match championship sport, it’s nonetheless anticipated to be one of many prime contenders to defend its title.
Kim Mulkey’s squad has been taking part in some its finest basketball heading into the match however will face a resolute Rice crew hoping to grow to be this 12 months’s “Cinderella” story.
South Carolina (No. 1) vs. Presbyterian (No. 16) – 2 p.m. ET on ESPN
South Carolina is the most well-liked No. 1 decide amongst followers trying to good their brackets this 12 months.
The ladies’s No. 1 general seeds are coming off the again of a second consecutive SEC Match title and are in search of to grow to be the tenth crew in ladies’s Division I historical past to complete the season as undefeated champions.
They may play in opposition to Presbyterian within the first spherical and will have sufficient to breeze via.
Nonetheless, final 12 months, South Carolina went undefeated within the SEC common season and SEC match earlier than being upset by Iowa within the Remaining 4. So nothing needs to be taken with no consideration.
Presbyterian gained this system’s first ever NCAA match sport over the Sacred Coronary heart Pioneers to make it to the ultimate 64 groups. Anything will certainly be a bonus.
No. 4 Virginia Tech vs. No. 13 Marshall – 3:30 p.m. on ESPN2
In search of a primary spherical upset? This may very well be it.
The seeding right here would recommend a first-round victory for Virginia Tech, however an damage to star participant Elizabeth Kitley makes this a better contest than first thought.
The 6-foot-6 ahead injured her knee on March 3 and introduced Thursday she would miss the NCAA match.
“This isn’t in any respect how I anticipated ending this 12 months with my crew, however I’m so pleased with all of our accomplishments, and I’m excited to see my women proceed to compete,” the three-time ACC participant of the 12 months mentioned on Instagram.
Her absence gives No. 13 seed Marshall an opportunity to supply an upset. The Herd, off the again of a profitable season, is returning to March Insanity for simply the second time in its historical past, final competing 27 years in the past.
Charles Barkley rips via Obama’s March Insanity bracket
All occasions in Japanese
No. 8 North Carolina vs. No. 9 Michigan State – 11:30 a.m.
No. 2 Ohio State vs. No. 15 Maine – 12 p.m.
No. 6 Louisville vs. No. 11 Center Tennessee – 1:30 p.m.
No. 1 South Carolina vs. No. 16 Presbyterian – 2 p.m.
No. 7 Duke vs. No. 10 Richmond – 2:30 p.m.
No. 1 Texas vs. No. 16 Drexel – 3 p.m.
No. 4 Virginia Tech vs. No. 13 Marshall – 3:30 p.m.
No. 3 LSU vs. No. 14 Rice – 4 p.m.
No. 4 Kansas State vs. No. 13 Portland – 4:30 p.m.
No. 8 Alabama vs. No. 9 Florida State – 5:30 p.m.
No. 5 Baylor vs. No. 12 Vanderbilt – 6 p.m.
No. 5 Colorado vs. No. 12 Drake – 7 p.m.
No. 7 Iowa State vs. No. 10 Maryland – 7:30 p.m.
No. 3 Oregon State vs. No. 14 Japanese Washington – 8 p.m.
No. 2 Stanford vs. No. 15 Norfolk State – 10 p.m.
No. 6 Nebraska vs. No. 11 Texas A&M – 10:30 p.m.