In a season of firsts, Duke's women's basketball team received its first No. 1 seed in program history.
The fifth-ranked Blue Devils (28-3) edged out fourth-ranked Georgia for the No. 1 seed in the West region. The other three top seeds include Connecticut in the East region, Tennessee in the Mideast region and Notre Dame in the Midwest region. Georgia received the No. 2 seed in UConn's bracket in the East.
Duke received the nod over the Bulldogs for winning both the outright ACC regular-season championship and the conference tournament championship, a feat Georgia did not accomplish in the Southeastern Conference. The Blue Devils had never won both championships in the same season.
"We felt like we would be a No. 1 seed. We felt like we had done everything necessary,O Duke coach Gail Goestenkors told ESPN's Robin Roberts during the live-televised selection special.
Duke will host 16th-seeded Wisconsin-Milwaukee (19-10) Saturday in Cameron Indoor Stadium in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The second round will also be played in Cameron, with the winner of Duke's contest facing off against the winner of the eight-nine game between Baylor (21-8) and Arkansas (19-12). If the Blue Devils advance to the Sweet 16, their games will be played March 24 and 26 in Spokane, Wash. Oklahoma, Florida and Rutgers represent the two, three and four teams, respectively, in Duke's region. Oklahoma, which is 17-1 in its last 18 games, may be the most dangerous No. 2 seed in the tournament with the exception of Georgia.
Boasting the second-best RPI ranking of the nation's conferences, the ACC slid a surprising six teams into the Big Dance. In addition to the Blue Devils, N.C. State, Clemson, Florida State, Maryland and Virginia all received bids from the tournament's selection committee. None of the ACC's five other representatives were placed in Duke's region.
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