COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Gamecocks earned a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in four years, which just so happens to also be the last time they won a national title.
The Gamecocks (22-4) found out their seeding while holding a virtual zoom event with fans on Monday night. USC will play Mercer (16-9), the 16 seed, Sunday, March 21 at 6 p.m. on ESPN.
All rounds of this year's women's tournament will be San Antonio, Texas including the national championship game, which will be held on April 4.
It's a return to the national tournament postseason after last year's disappointing end to the season caused by the coronavirus pandemic. In March of 2020, USC was the number one team in America and seemed poised to be the number one overall seed in the tournament and make a serious run at the second national title in program history. But just days before they were to learn their postseason assignment, the tournament was scrubbed.
This season the team is ranked sixth in the country headed into the NCAA tourney. While they were edged out of the SEC regular season title by Texas A&M, they won the SEC Tournament to get their sixth conference postseason title in the last seven years.
The team has been the number one seed in the tournament four times, from 2014 to 2017. In 2018, they were a number two seed, and in 2019, a four seed.