Women’s March Madness: Kansas State earns 9-seed, to face Michigan in Louisville

A mistake by ESPN led to portions of the bracket being revealed early, but it’s now official: K-State is heading to the NCAA Tournament for the third time in four years, and the sixteenth time overall.

The Cats earned a nine seed, and their first round opponent on Friday in Louisville will be the eighth-seeded Michigan Wolverines (21-11, 11-7 Big 10). Should K-State (21-11, 11-7 Big 12) win, they would then face the pod host and top-seeded Louisville Cardinals (29-3, 14-2 ACC) on Sunday for a chance to travel to Albany, N.Y., for the Sweet Sixteen.

(Yes, we’re just going to go ahead and assume Louisville is winning Friday because they’re opening with 16th-seeded Robert Morris.)

This will mark the sixth time in history that K-State has sent one recruiting class to three NCAA Tournaments, and the ninth such instance overall if one includes the AIAW Tournaments which preceded the NCAA taking over sponsorship of women’s sports. (Only one senior class has ever reached the tournament four times, that being the class of 2005, which included Kendra Wecker, Nicole Ohlde, and Megan Mahoney.) So every game from this point forward could be the last for Kayla Goth and Kali Jones.

In a tragic confluence of events, the women’s first round game will tip off at the exact same time as the men’s, at 1:00pm CT on Friday. The women’s game will air on ESPN2 for those of you inclined to channel-hop.