SEC surge takes over March Madness with 6 teams in Sweet 16, setting up conference showdowns
The Sweet 16 will have a definite SEC feel with six teams advancing from that conference to the second weekend of March Madness. Top seeds South Carolina and Texas cruised into the regional semifinals of the women’s NCAA Tournament and are joined by No. 2 seeds Vanderbilt and LSU, No.
4 Oklahoma and No. 5 Kentucky. “I think it’s a great sign for the conference.
You can’t really control if it’s spread out or not,” Vanderbilt coach Shea Ralph said. “But you know how we feel about the SEC conference. It’s the best conference in the country.
If you want to win a championship, you’re going to have to come through us, so it’s not a surprise to me that we’re seeing that many teams in. We’ll see. Hopefully we’ll continue to be one of them.
” Both of the 1 seeds will have all-SEC matchups, with the Gamecocks facing the Sooners — the lone team to beat them in the regular season during conference play. “Our league prepares us for this level of play,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “There isn’t an opponent out there that we don’t feel like we’re prepared for because of what we have been challenged with in the regular season and in the SEC Tournament.