Virginia Tech Tabbed No. 4 Seed In NCAA Tournament, Hosts Marshall

Virginia Tech women’s basketball was named a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament and will host a regional in Blacksburg for the second straight year. It’s the program’s fourth consecutive year in the event and it currently owns a 25-game home win streak — the fourth-longest in the country.

The Hokies (24-7, 14-4), who won the ACC regular-season title, will host No. 13 seed Marshall on Friday, March 22. No. 5 seed Baylor will also venture to the New River Valley, along with No. 12 seeds Vanderbilt and Columbia, who will play in a First Four game in Cassell Coliseum on Wednesday, March 20.

Here’s a breakdown of the tip times and TV designations:

Wednesday, March 20: No. 12 Columbia vs. No. 12 Vanderbilt, 9 p.m. ET, ESPNU
Friday, March 22: No. 13 Marshall vs. No. 4 Virginia Tech, 3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2
Friday, March 22: No. 12 Columbia/Vanderbilt vs. No. 5 Baylor, 6 p.m. ET, ESPNU

“We’re excited to be at home,” Tech head coach Kenny Brooks told reporters after the bracket was revealed on Sunday night. “One of the great things about our program and where it’s come from, a couple of years ago, we just couldn’t wait until our number was called and didn’t care what number was beside it. This year, every time the 5-12 matchup popped up and it wasn’t us, our girls had a sigh of relief, and that just goes to show you that they’re very educated in seeding, and when we got the four seed, we don’t even know what they said about us, we were all screaming because we knew we were going to be back in Cassell.”

When you get another weekend at Cassell 🤩 pic.twitter.com/RNbtV13ElJ

— Virginia Tech Women's Basketball (@HokiesWBB) March 18, 2024

Brooks did not have an update on All-American center and three-time ACC Player of the Year Elizabeth Kitley, though he did not rule out her return.

“There’s a chance for everything,” Brooks said. “We just haven’t tested her yet. … This week, it’s going to be more of a ramp it up to get to see where she really is. It’s really taking it slow. … We felt like there was no need to rush anything last week and there was nothing definitive coming out yet.”

The No. 13 Hokies will meet the Thundering Herd (26-6, 17-1 Sun Belt) for the 10th time ever, the first in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. They’ve taken the last eight in the series, including the most recent meeting on Dec. 30, 1992. Marshall, who beat James Madison in an overtime thriller to claim the Sun Belt Tournament title on March 11, has won 10 straight games.

Head coach Kim Caldwell is in her first season with the program after posting a 191-24 record over eight seasons at D-II Glenville State in West Virginia, which included a national championship in 2022. The Thundering Herd rank 73rd in the NET and have not played a top-50 team all season. However, they are in the top five in a number of national categories:

• First in 3-point attempts per game (31.7)
• Second in 3-pointers made per game (10.8), turnover margin (8.2), turnovers forced per game (24.5)
• Third in scoring offense (86.4) and steals per game (13.4)
• Fifth in offensive rebounds per game (16.3)

Tech will be much taller across the board — the biggest Marshall player is 6-1 — but will have to deal with the Herd’s athleticism, a similar situation to its matchup against Florida Gulf Coast in 2021.

“We’re going to have a height advantage, … but we also have to go against their quickness,” Brooks said. “I know they’re probably quicker than we are and we’re going to have to be prepared for that. It’s going to have to be all hands on deck with their pressure and not just, ‘Hey, let Georgia [Amoore] break it.’ Maybe we can have our taller players help relieve some of the pressure.

“But we’re really going to have to have everybody step up, regardless of who’s out there, because they’re a feisty team and they do what they do, and it’s one thing to play a team like that in the non-conference because they’ve only had a few games under their belt. They’ve been able to play like that all year long and they’ve perfected it, they understand it, so we’re going to have to go against a very seasoned, pressuring team. But we’ve seen that before.”

No. 19 Baylor (24-7, 13-7 Big 12) finished in a three-way tie for fourth in the Big 12 regular season. It’s made the Big Dance in each of its three seasons under Nicki Collen, who took over for Kim Mulkey. The Bears are No. 18 in the NET and won six straight games to end the season before bowing out to Iowa State in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament.

They’ll face the winner of Vanderbilt (22-9, 9-7 SEC) and Columbia (23-6, 13-1 Ivy), which will be played in Cassell Coliseum on Wednesday night. The Commodores won their final three games of the regular season and finished sixth in the SEC. Meanwhile, the Lions tied Princeton for the regular-season crown and lost to the Tigers on Saturday in the Ivy League Tournament final but, like Vanderbilt, earned an at-large bid.

Vanderbilt and Columbia are 56th and 57th, respectively, in the NET. The Hokies last played the Commodores in Dec. 2010 and have never met the Lions. They played Baylor once: the second round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament in San Antonio.

For the full NCAA Tournament bracket, click here. For questions about the Blacksburg Regional schedule, tickets and more, visit Virginia Tech’s tournament central page.