The Basics
WHAT: The MVC Tournament champion Drake women's basketball team earned the No. 12 seed in the Seattle 4 Region of the 2023 NCAA Tournament and will play No. 5 seed Louisville in the first round. The Bulldogs and Cardinals will battle in a neutral site matchup hosted by the University of Texas in Austin.
WHEN: Saturday, March 18 at 6:30 p.m. CT
WHERE: Moody Center in Austin, Texas
NEXT: The winner of Drake and Louisville will play the winner of No. 4 seed Texas and No. 13 East Carolina on Monday, March 20 in the NCAA Tournament second round.
Broadcast Information
Friday's game will be televised live on ESPN2 with play-by-play broadcaster Eric Frede and former WNBA superstar Tamika Catchings as analyst.
Locally in Des Moines, the game will air live on ESPN 1350/102.1, the radio home of Drake women's basketball. The usual crew of Hunter Phillips and Randy Mauro will narrate on the local radio call.
Drake in the Postseason
Drake makes its 23rd all-time postseason appearance, and 13th in the NCAA Tournament. The Bulldogs have qualified for the NCAA Tournament four times in the last six years.
Drake also has six WNIT berths including a quarterfinal appearance last season.
The Bulldogs are 16-24 all-time in postseason tournament games and 6-13 in NCAA Tournament games.
Drake's NCAA Tournament History
Drake has previously appeared in the NCAA Tournament 13 times, most recently in 2019.
The No. 7 seed Bulldogs advanced to the Sweet Sixteen in 2002 with wins over No. 10 seed Syracuse and No. 2 seed Baylor before falling to No. 3 seed South Carolina, the eventual regional runner-up.
Prior to 2002, Drake's last NCAA Tournament win came as a No. 5 seed over Ole Miss in a 1995 overtime contest. Drake then dropped another overtime clash to No. 4 seed George Washington in the following round.
The Bulldogs also own an NCAA Tournament win over Kentucky in 1986 and reached the Elite Eight with wins over Ohio State and Long Beach State in 1982.
Double the Fun
For the first time in school history, both the Drake men's and women's basketball teams are playing in the NCAA Tournament during the same year.
The Drake men's basketball team earned an automatic qualifying spot by capturing the Missouri Valley Conference tournament championship with a 77-51 blowout win over No. 1 seed Bradley on Sunday, Mar. 5 in St. Louis.
The Drake men also are a No. 12 seed, facing No. 5 seed Miami in the opening round on Friday, Mar. 17 at 6:25 p.m. This will mark Drake men's basketball's sixth trip to the NCAA Tournament.
This marks the seventh time in the history of the Missouri Valley Conference that the same member school won both the men's and women's postseason tournaments. It is the first time since 2014 when Wichita State won both the MVC men's and women's tournament titles.
Fighting Up a Class
Drake is 1-2 against Power 6 conference teams this season with an early win over then No. 22 Nebraska, their first ranked win in five years. The Bulldogs also took then No. 4 Iowa to overtime in November and battled then No. 18 Creighton in a 75-71 loss.
The Bulldogs are also 4-5 all-time against team from the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Scouting Louisville
The Cardinals enter the NCAA Tournament with a 23-11 overall record and 12-6 mark in ACC play. Louisville finished as the ACC Tournament runner-up with a loss to national No. 1 seed Virginia Tech following wins over Wake Forest and ACC regular season champion Notre Dame. The Cardinals' also boast a win over fellow MVC foe Belmont in mid-November.
All-ACC First Team selection Hailey Van Lith has been a star for the Cardinals with 19.2 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 3.2 assists per game. Chrislyn Carr, a native of Davenport, Iowa, is the Cardinals' only other double-digit scorer with 11.4 points per game on 40+ percent shooting rates from the field and behind the three-point arc.
Louisville is led by head coach Jeff Walz. The Northern Kentucky University alumnus is in his 16th season at Louisville and has posted an impressive 437-124 overall record. Walz has coached the Cards to at least 22 wins and a positive record in all but one year of his tenure.
Scouting Texas
Texas (25-9) won the Big 12 Tournament title with a win over Iowa State in the championship game after also claiming the Big 12 regular season crown.
A pair of Longhorns earned conference specialty awards as Rori Harmon won the league's Defensive Player of the Year and Shaylee Gonzales merited the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year. Harmon and Gonzales are two of five Texas players to score at least 11 points per game as Gonzales' 12.7 ppg lead the way. Other leading scorers include First Team All-Big 12 performer DeYona Gaston, Sonya Morris, and Aaliyah Moore.
Vic Schaefer is in his third year as the head coach of the Longhorns with a 75-26 record in Austin. The 18-year Division I head coaching veteran has also made stops at Mississippi State and Sam Houston with a 376-198 career record.
Scouting East Carolina
The Pirates ran the table as the No. 3 seed in the American Athletic Conference women's basketball tournament. ECU rattled off wins over No. 6 seed Tulane, No. 2 seed Memphis, and No. 4 seed Houston to earn the AAC's automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament. The Pirates are 23-9 overall and posted an 11-5 mark in league play.
Danae McNeal leads the Pirates as the AAC Defensive Player of the Year and Most Improve Player of the Year. The unanimous First-Team All-AAC selection pours in 17.6 points per game and leads the team with 2.9 assits per game. Amiya Joyner also provides a major boost as East Carolina's only other double-digit scorer with 10.5 ppg while also pacing the Pirates on the glass with 6.2 rebounds per game.
Kim McNeill is in her seventh season has a Division I head coach and fourth in charge of the ECU women's hoops program. She has posted records of 51-100 overall and 51-62 at ECU after going a winless 0-38 in three years at Hartford. McNeill collected the 2022-23 AAC Coach of the Year honor.
Series History vs. Louisville and Potential Second Round Opponents
Saturday's matchup will be the first-ever meeting between Drake and Louisville. If the Bulldogs were to advance, they would either take on Texas for the fifth time (Texas leads, 3-1) or meet East Carolina in another inaugural matchup.
