Mississippi State, Ole Miss both face tough roads in NCAA Women’s Tournament

Published 8:16 pm Sunday, March 16, 2025

Like everyone else, the goal for Ole Miss and Mississippi State’s women’s basketball teams is to get to the Final Four in Tampa, Florida. To do it, though, both of Mississippi’s SEC teams will first have to visit the other side of the country.

Ole Miss and Mississippi State both received bids to the NCAA Women’s Tournament when the brackets were revealed Sunday evening. They will play in the Spokane 1 and Spokane 4 regionals, respectively, with a couple of dominant No. 1 seeds in their path.

Mississippi State (21-11) will travel to Los Angeles for the opening weekend, and will face California (25-8) on Saturday in a match-up of the Nos. 9 and 8 seeds, respectively.

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The winner will most likely face the regional’s No. 1 seed, Southern California (28-3), on its home floor on March 24. USC will play No. 16 seed UNC Greensboro (21-11) in the other first-round game.

PRINTABLE NCAA WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT BRACKET

The NCAA has two regionals in Spokane, Washington, and two others in Birmingham March X28-31

Ole Miss was hoping to stay close to home as a host site for the first two rounds, followed by a regional in Birmingham and then the Final Four in Tampa. Instead, it’ll start the tournament in Texas and then go northwest to Spokane if it makes it to the Sweet 16.

Ole Miss (20-10) got the No. 5 seed in the Spokane 1 Regional and will play in Waco, Texas, against No. 12 Ball State (27-7) on Friday.

No. 4 Baylor will host that regional and play No. 13 Grand Canyon (32-2) on Friday.

The survivor of the Waco subregional will most likely play No. 1 overall seed UCLA (30-2) in the Sweet 16.

Derita Dawkins, the NCAA DIvision I Women’s Basketball Committee Chair, told ESPN that Maryland edged out Ole Miss for the final host site. Maryland got the No. 4 seed in the Birmingham 2 Regional.

“Looking at the resumés between (Ole Miss) and Maryland, there was substantial conversation by the committee about who were going to be in those top 16 spots,” Dawkins said during ESPN’s NCAA Tournament Selection Show. “When you look at their wins against top 100 NET, that tips to Maryland. When you look at the total number of losses, that tips to Maryland. So Maryland got the 16 and Ole Miss the 17.”

LSU (28-5) was selected as a first-weekend host, as the No. 3 seed in the Spokane 1 Regional. It will play San Diego State (25-9) in the first round Saturday in Baton Rouge, with the winner advancing to face either No. 6 seed Florida State (23-8) or No. 11 George Mason (27-5).

About Ernest Bowker

Ernest Bowker is The Vicksburg Post's sports editor. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post's sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper's 140-year history. The New Jersey native is a graduate of LSU. In his career, he has won more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.

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