Lady Gamecocks snubbed seeding could lead to another title run

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The 2025 NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s brackets were revealed on Sunday, March 16 or better known as ‘Selection Sunday’ and of course, both brackets created a lot of discussions with the seedings as they do every year. South Carolina Gamecocks women’s basketball team were selected as one of the four number one seeds and they will be the top seeded team in the Birmingham region after going 30-3 and winning their sixth consecutive SEC conference title.

Most teams in this position would be happy, but of ocurse the great Dawn Staley and her high expectations were a little disappointed. UCLA was named the top overall seed for the tournament after defeating the Lady Gamecocks by 15 points in early season top-five showdown. The Bruins only lost two games all season and both were to USC, who they beat in the Big 10 conference championship game.

“Obviously it’s disappointing. It really is,” Staley said, via FOX 57’s Matt Dowell. “I’d like to get some feedback on how they came to that conclusion. Because we put together, manufactured a schedule that if done right, it should produce the overall No. 1 seed.”

“But I will say this. We’re gonna make adjustments to our schedule in the future if the standard is the standard. If that’s the standard, then we can play any schedule and get a No. 1 seed,” she continued.

The Lady Gamecocks are still the favorite to win it all this year and Staley did play in one of the toughest conferences in women’s basketball. The SEC will have ten teams representing the conference in the tournament this year and two of them being number one seeds, Texas. Also, the Gamecocks had two losses late in the regular season but the UConn loss obviously were stuck in the selection committee’s heads.

“My reaction? I mean, I’m not in the room. Obviously, I think we did much more than probably any other overall No. 1 seed. We outdid ourselves even from last year, with the amount of quality wins that we had,” Staley concluded. “But I guess the committee was looking at something else.”

Unfortunately, that means trouble for the rest of the field. Staley will surely use this as motivation and you can expect them to embarass Tennessee Tech in their first round matchup on Friday, March 21 at 4:00 p.m.