KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The only program to appear in every NCAA Tournament, the University of Tennessee women’s basketball team received confirmation that it had earned its 40th consecutive postseason bid Sunday night when the bracket was revealed on ESPN.
UT also learned it will serve as a host for the NCAA First and Second Rounds for the first time since the 2017-18 campaign. This will mark the 18th occasion the Lady Vols have hosted the NCAA First and Second Rounds since that format was instituted in 1994.
The Lady Vols (23-8) are seeded No. 4 in the Wichita Region. UT will face No. 13 seed University at Buffalo (25-8) in the first round on Saturday, March 19, in Thompson-Boling Arena. Tip time and TV info. will be announced later. This will mark the first meeting between these programs.
No. 5 seed Oregon (20-11) will meet No. 12 seed Belmont (22-7) in the other first-round contest in Knoxville on March 19. The winners of the first-round match-ups will face off on Monday, March 21. Time and TV info. for that contest will be announced later as well.
The Lady Vols, who are 126-31 all-time in NCAA play, are the only school to appear in all 40 tournaments, winning eight national championships. They also have recorded the most games played (157) and victories (126) in tournament history.
Buffalo, meanwhile, is making its fourth overall NCAA appearance. The Bulls, who are coached by 10-year veteran Felisha Legette-Jack, previously made the field in 2016, 2018 and 2019. UB is an automatic qualifier by virtue of winning the Mid-American Conference Tournament Championship.
The Lady Vols are 31-2 in NCAA First-Round games. The only blemishes are opening-round losses to Ball State (71-55) in Bowling Green, Ky., on March 22, 2009, and to UCLA (89-77) in College Park, Md., on March 23, 2019. UT is 23-0 all-time when playing first-round contests in Knoxville.
Tennessee is making its second NCAA appearance under third-year head coach Kellie Harper. The 1999 UT graduate and LVFL last year became just the second coach to lead four different women’s programs to the NCAA Division I Tournament. She did so at Western Carolina, NC State and Missouri State before checking that box in Knoxville a season ago. She would have done so in 2020 had the tournament not been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Harper joined Jim Foster (St. Joseph’s, Vanderbilt, Ohio State, Chattanooga) in that rare company, but she was the first to do so at her alma mater.
Tennessee, ranked No. 19/17 this week, was the third-place finisher in the SEC during the regular season at 11-5 and advanced to the semifinals of the SEC Tournament before falling to eventual champ Kentucky.
Buffalo finished second in the MAC in 2021-22 at 16-4 before capturing the league tourney crown. UT is 8-1 all-time vs. schools currently in that league, with the lone loss coming to Ball State in the 2009 NCAA Tournament.
Tennessee played 15 of the 68 teams in the 2022 NCAA Tournament field this season and owns a 10-6 record vs. those squads. UT captured victories over Arkansas (twice), Georgia, Kentucky, Ole Miss, South Florida, Southern Illinois, Texas, UCF, and Virginia Tech, and it fell to Florida, Kentucky, LSU, South Carolina, Stanford and UConn.
-UT Athletics
