March 16, 2021 |
Wyoming Cowgirls
The Champions of the Mountain West Conference will face third seed UCLA in the Hemisfair Region of the NCAA Tournament.
That was the announcement last night on ESPN.
The Cowgirls and Bruins will tip Monday night at 8 p.m. Mountain Time. UCLA comes in at 16-5. The Los Angeles Times reports that the Bruins come into the tournament short-handed. Only eight scholarship players have been listed on their roster for most of the season. Injuries, opt-outs and a depleted freshmen class have taken a toll on UCLA’s bench.
If the Cowgirls pull off the upset on Monday, the Hemisfair bracket only gets tougher. It includes No. 1 seed South Carolina, which won the SEC tournament, and No. 2 seed Maryland, the top-scoring team in the nation at 91 points per game. Along with South Carolina, North Carolina, Stanford and Connecticut are the top lines for the San Antonio-themed tournament. The Cardinal earned the No. 1 overall seeding when the field was revealed last night.
ESPN’s reveal of where the Cowgirls will play spoke volumes about what’s happening in Wyoming weather-wise or how the network feels about the Cowboy State. After 15 straight minutes of live shots of women’s teams from around the nation reacting to the announcement of where the announcers back in the Connecticut studios encouraged players to mug and jump for the camera, the Wyoming – UCLA presentation was a bit of a letdown with with no fanfare, no live shots.
