Fresh off the first regular-season title since the 2013-14 season, the fourth-ranked Stanford women’s basketball team is looking to begin a magical March at the Pac-12 Conference Tournament.
The Cardinal (22-2) are the No. 1 seed and have a first-round bye in the tournament, which begins Wednesday at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. While Stanford saw Oregon win the last three regular-season titles, the Cardinal have won three of the past six conference championships, including 2019, and the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Cal (1-15), meanwhile, is seeded 12th and will face fifth-seeded Oregon State (9-6) in the first round Wednesday at 11 a.m. The two teams did not face each other during the regular season due to cancellations. The Golden Bears avoided a winless regular season in the next-to-last game, beating Arizona State 67-55 at Berkeley on Feb. 21.
Stanford will play the winner of eighth-seeded USC (10-11) and ninth-seeded Arizona State (11-9) in Thursday’s 2 p.m. quarterfinal. The winner of the Cal-Oregon State game plays fourth-seeded Oregon (13-7) in Thursday’s 11 a.m. quarterfinal. Cal and Stanford are on the same side of the bracket, so there is an outside chance the Bay Area rivals could square off in Friday’s semifinals.
With the tournament taking Saturday off, the championship game is Sunday at 5 p.m. The Pac-12 men’s tournament is next week.
WCC Tournament
The USF men and women will also be in Vegas this week for the West Coast Conference Tournament, which is being held at the Orleans Arena. Action in both tournaments begins Thursday.
In the women’s bracket, the third-seeded Dons (14-9) earned the double bye and will play Saturday against the winner of the game between sixth-seeded Pacific (11-10) and seventh-seeded St. Mary’s (6-18) in the 2 p.m. quarterfinal.
On the men’s side, eighth-seeded USF (10-13) takes on ninth-seeded San Diego (3-10) in the first round on Thursday at 6 p.m. The winner faces fifth-seeded Loyola Marymount on Friday at 6 p.m. USF beat San Diego 70-62 on New Year’s Eve at War Memorial Gym in the teams’ only meeting this season.
Semifinals for the men and women are Monday, with the championship games Tuesday. There are no games Sunday.
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