Following the announcement of a third straight NCAA Tournament invitation for the women’s basketball team, the darkly-lit room snuggled in the back corner of Amedeo’s lit up with excitement and relief.
The entire team ate dinner and watched as N.C. State drew a No. 5 seed in the San Antonio regional and will travel to Chicago to play No. 12 Tulsa. Last season, State was also a fifth seed, but took an early exit as they lost to 12th-seeded Middle Tennessee State in the first round.
“We are just happy that we had the kind of season that qualifies us for the NCAA Tournament,” Coach Kay Yow said.
“Because as everybody knows, the ACC is the toughest it’s ever been. We could have legitimately had three No. 1 seeds in the tournament. We have two No. 1 seeds and a No. 2. We have seven teams that are in,” she said.
Duke and UNC both received No. 1 seeds while Maryland received a No. 2 seed.
The Pack finished the season winning six of eight games, including two wins in the ACC Tournament.
However, the season didn’t start as planned for State, which had a 3-6 record in the ACC and a 13-9 record overall more than halfway into the season.
Ashley Key, an All-ACC Defensive Team selection, said the team got together and had a meeting after the poor start.
“We had a team meeting at one point,” Key said. “We talked about what we were going to do as a team to get it together. After the meeting, we got on the same page again.”
Even after finishing three games behind Florida State in the ACC, the Pack were placed one seed better than the Seminoles in the NCAA Tournament.
Yow, whose team finished with a strength of schedule ranked second in the country and had an RPI of 11, said the committee did a good job considering those factors.
“I’m glad to see the committee stayed true to what they said the criteria would be,” Yow said. “Because we based our schedule on that from day one, for the past few years, they have been very committed to sticking to that: the strength of schedule, the RPI and everything that goes with that. You can see that with their selection of teams and seeds.”
Having the team get together and watch the selection show is something Yow said she values a great deal.
“It’s a fun thing to do. It’s a lot better when you know you’re going somewhere,” Yow said. “A few years ago we were a bubble team, and we could go or not go equally. We watched all the brackets and the last four teams they put up, we were in the last set of teams — that was probably the most exciting time we’ve ever had.”
Senior guard Billie McDowell, who will participate in her final NCAA Tournament, said even though she knows little about Chicago, she is ready to make the trip and play in the opening-round game.
“It’s really exciting,” McDowell said. “We are just ready to play. It doesn’t matter where we go, but I’m just excited and ready to go.”
Asked about the trip to Chicago, Key responded quickly.
“I’m just ready to play,” she said.