The wait to find out which seed No. 23 DePaul women’s basketball would earn in the NCAA tournament wasn’t long Monday as the Blue Demons found out minutes into ESPN’s selection show at 6 p.m. CST.
DePaul, who earned a seventh seed, will face the No. 10 seed Oklahoma on Saturday in Durham, N.C. at 1:30 p.m. EST. The two teams are part of the Lincoln region, whose top two seeds are No. 1 UConn and No. 9 Duke.
“It’s going to be a strong, well-coached Oklahoma team,” DePaul head coach Doug Bruno said. “This time of year, we are who we are. There’s not a lot of leeway. We have to study Oklahoma.”
This is DePaul’s second consecutive trip to Durham. The team was ousted by Oklahoma State in the first round in 2013.
“That’s what we’re most surprised about,” forward Megan Rogowski said. “It’s like d’ÛΩj’Ûξ vu. It’s kind of ironic, but we all like Duke. We’re familiar with it now and know what to expect. Hopefully, we can use it to our advantage.”
If DePaul wins, they will face the winner of the No. 2 seed Duke and the no. 15 seed Winthrop. The matchup would take place on Duke’s home court, Cameron Indoor Stadium.
ESPN’s Charlie Cr’ÛÎåme projected DePaul as a sixth seed prior to the selection. Despite the chance his team would end up with a higher seed, Bruno said he wasn’t concerned about being a seventh seed instead of a sixth.
“You really can’t overthink it,” Bruno said. “Ultimately, there are 64 good teams and you have to be prepared to win one in a row. If we wanted to be a number one seed, we should have played like a number one seed all year.”
Oklahoma (18-14) was considered an on the bubble team. It was an up and down season for the Sooners, who went 9-9 in conference play and also finished second in the preseason WNIT against Louisville. The Sooners have lost three of their last four.
The Blue Demons, meanwhile, have won 16 of their last 17, including winning the Big East championship. Bruno credited his team to committing to rebounding and playing better defense in that run.
This year’s tournament appearance marks the 12th consecutive tournament appearance by Bruno and the Blue Demons.
“Our players understand that we define ourselves what we do starting now,” Bruno said.