March Madness has arrived, and Selection Sunday is approaching as Florida State women’s basketball (23-8, 13-5) awaits where it is seeded and which team it will be facing in the first round.
The Selection Sunday show will start at 8 p.m. and be televised on ESPN.
Despite falling to North Carolina in the ACC tournament quarterfinals, the Seminoles have had a successful regular season. They lost to Duke in their season finale.
Being one of the top-scoring offenses in the country led to Brook Wyckoff’s third straight 20-win season.
However, it also brought some adversities, including back-to-back road losses to Cal and Stanford. FSU also struggled against Louisville and North Carolina State.
FSU also battled some injuries late in the season. Ta’Niya Latson missed three straight games, and O’Mariah Gordon missed two.
Despite the injuries, the Seminoles won three of the four games, including back-to-back road wins over No. 20 Georgia Tech and Notre Dame, which was third-ranked at the time.
According to ESPN’s Charlie Creme’s latest bracketology, FSU holds the No. 6 seed and will face either Washington or Iowa in the first round in Baton Rouge on the Region 2 Spokane bracket. The Seminoles will likely face No. 3 LSU on their home court if victorious.
This will be FSU’s 12th straight tournament appearance, but it has never advanced past the first round in the last four seasons.
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FSU women’s basketball is in the record books
This season has been a record-breaking season for the Seminoles.
FSU is ranked No. 3 in the country in scoring offense with 86.9, with Latson leading the charge as the nation’s No. 1 scorer with 24.9 points a game.
The nation’s third-ranked scoring offense had seven 100-plus games, which is the most in program history. On Jan. 19 against Miami, FSU shot a program-best 18 3-pointers to roll over the Hurricanes at the Donald L. Tucker Center.
Records have also been made by the FSU trio of Latson, Makayla Timpson, and Gordon.
Latson, who is up for national player of the year honors, had an All-American type season. She is the fastest player to score 2,000 points in FSU history and third in ACC history.
She is also second in program history in scoring (2,037) and holds the record for most free throws made at 500.
She dropped 40 points against Virginia Tech, which is tied Natasha Howard’s record. She recorded her five double-doubles and her first-ever triple-double against Gonzaga.
Timpson made history in her senior year. Averaging 17.6 points and 10.6 rebounds, she holds the career records with 46 double-doubles and 1,074 rebounds, which Howard previously held.
She is one of the top shot-blockers in the country, averaging 3.2 a game. She broke her single-season record with 99.
Timpson had eight blocks in the ACC quarterfinals, which tied the ACC record. Timpson is a semifinalist for Defensive Player of the Year.
Gordon’s career-best season was averaging 16.2 points a game. In a road win against Miami, she dropped a career-high 34 points. She, along with Latson and Timpson, earned first-team All-ACC and All-ACC Defensive team honors.
More: FSU basketball’s Ta’Niya Latson close to Naismith Women’s College Player of the Year Award
FSU basketball potentially faces Big 10 opponents. Then LSU
If the bracketology is true, FSU must wait until the play-in game between Washington (19-13, 9-9) and Iowa (22-10, 10-8) in Baton Rouge. The Seminoles haven’t faced the Huskies since 2014.
Washington is led by three players who are averaging double figures and receive All-Big 10 honors. Elle Ladine, who made the second team, leads the way with 17.1 points a game.
Sayvia Sellers averages 15.2 points a game and Daylayah Daniels, 6-foot-4, has 12.7 points a game and 7.1 rebounds a game. The Huskies are projected to be the last four in the NCAA tourney.
FSU has not beaten the Huskies in the last four meetings. FSU faced and beat Iowa in back-to-back seasons in 2017 and 2018.
After a year from playing in the finals with its former Hawkeye superstar Caitlin Clark, Iowa makes its way back in the tournament at 22-10, led by senior guard Lucy Olson, who averages 18 points a night, and Hannah Stuelke, a 6-foot-2 forward who averages 12.8 points a game and 7.9 rebounds.
If FSU advances, it will likely take on No. 10 LSU in the next round at the Pete Maravich Assembly. Last year, LSU lost to the Hawkeyes in the Elite 8.
The Tigers’ top scorers include Flau’jae Johnson (18.9) and Aneese Morrow (18.5). Like Latson, both Morrow and Johnson are considered for national award honors.
Morrow, who leads the country in rebounds, is a semifinalist for the Naismith Award, and Johnson is a semifinalist for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award and a finalist for the Wooden Award.
More: Former FSU baseball assistant, Tallahassee resident who also wore jersey No. 11 dies
NCAA Selection Sunday
Where: Sunday at 8 p.m. at Township, Tallahassee
TV: ESPN
More: Luke Loucks is the latest former Seminole to return to Florida State as a head coach
Peter Holland Jr. covers Florida State athletics for Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at PHolland@Gannett.com or on X @_Da_pistol.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU women’s basketball March Madness, NCAA bracket predictions
