The ASU women's basketball team is going to the NCAA Tournament for the fifth consecutive year. The Sun Devils learned Monday that they were given the No. 7 seed and will compete in the Kansas City region.
ASU will battle the No. 10 seed Nebraska Cornhuskers Saturday, March 17 in Austin, Texas on ESPN2 at 3:30 p.m. ET. If the Sun Devils win Saturday, they will face the victor between the No. 2 seed Texas Longhorns and the No. 15 seed Maine Black Bears in the round of 32.
"We are just thrilled to be in the tournament," head coach Charli Turner Thorne said. "Obviously we knew we were in.”
ASU is in the Kansas City bracket, which consists of No. 1 Mississippi State, No. 3 UCLA, No. 4 NC State and No. 5 Maryland.
This season marks five straight 20-win seasons and NCAA tournament appearances for Turner Thorne and her squads.
"I'm just really excited and really thankful and really happy to be in the tournament," junior forward Kianna Ibis said. "It's always a fun time, and it can be anybody's game."
The Sun Devils were projected to finish sixth in the preseason Pac-12 polls. They finished in that spot but responded with an upset victory over No. 10 Oregon State in the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 tournament to secure their ticket to the Big Dance.
ASU has a 57.44 percent strength of schedule, ranking them 55th in the nation. The Sun Devils faced eight ranked opponents over the course of the season, and they have a 3-10 record versus ranked opponents.
"I think that we are young, but we have a lot of experience," sophomore guard Robbi Ryan said. "We’re hungry, and you never know what can happen in March."
The Sun Devils have consistently showed the committee that they intend to be a part of the Big Dance for years to come.
"When I was younger, I would come home from school and watch the first couple rounds, and that was a blast," redshirt junior forward Courtney Ekmark said. "Now that we get to play in it, it's going to be so much fun.”
Reach the reporter at sbemanue@asu.edu or follow @SebastianEman24 on Twitter.
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