AUBURN, Ala. – Following its best regular season in a decade, the Auburn women's basketball team earned its 21st all-time NCAA Tournament bid Monday when the Tigers were selected as the No. 10 seed in the Chicago Regional.
The Tigers (22-9) will travel to Stanford, Calif., to face No. 7 seed BYU (25-6) in the first round; game time is set for 2:30 p.m. CT Saturday at Maples Pavilion.
"I'm so happy for our team," Auburn head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said. "I'm very excited to be heading out to California; it's going to be great. We don't really know too much about BYU at this point; we'll get the film and get to work.
"The one thing we've been talking about since the start of the season is building a 'Team of Excellence.' We didn't want to talk about going to the NCAA Tournament. We knew if we built a 'Team of Excellence,' doing the right things, getting wins, that would get us to the NCAA Tournament."
Auburn is in the tournament for the third time in the last four seasons. The Tigers missed the postseason last year but were NCAA participants in 2016 and 2017. In 2016, Auburn advanced to the second round as a No. 9 seed, defeating St. John's in the first round before falling to top-seeded Baylor. In 2017, Auburn was a No. 11 seed and fell in the first round to No. 6 NC State.
"I'm so extremely excited and proud of my team," senior Janiah McKay said. "We had some tough losses, but we had a lot of good wins, and I'm just proud of the resilience to continue to fight and get us to this position. I wouldn't want to do it with anybody else. I'm also excited that our freshmen get to experience this for the first time."
No. 2 seed Stanford (28-4) earned a bid as the Pac-12 Tournament champion and is the host school. The Cardinal will face 15th-seeded UC Davis (25-6), the Big West Conference champion, at 4:30 p.m. CT in Saturday's second game. The winners of the two first-round games will meet Monday, March 25, at a time to be determined.
Auburn is in the NCAA field for the 21st time in program history. The Tigers have made three trips to the Final Four, finishing as national runner-up in 1988, 1989 and 1990. Auburn is 30-20 all-time in the NCAA Tournament.
This will be the first meeting between Auburn and BYU. The Tigers have met Stanford three times, dropping all three contests – including the 1990 national championship game. Auburn won the only prior meeting with UC Davis, a neutral-site game in San Diego in 2005.
This will be Auburn's third trip to Stanford. The Tigers played in a December tournament there in 1995, defeating Eastern Washington but falling to Stanford. Auburn also played in the NCAA Tournament as a No. 11 seed at Maples Pavilion in 2008, dropping a first-round contest to George Washington.
TICKET INFO
Tickets will go on sale Tuesday at noon CT at GoStanford.com. All-session prices are $55 for lower sideline, $45 for lower corner, $35 for upper sideline, $25 for adult general admission and $15 for student/youth/senior general admission.
Single-day tickets range from $25-35 for reserved seating and $10-15 for general admission.