Via Kansas Athletics
LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Kansas Jayhawks will appear in NCAA Tournament for the second time in the past three seasons after earning an at-large berth to the 2024 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. The Jayhawks are the No. 8 seed in the Portland Region and will head to Los Angeles to face No. 9 seed Michigan.
Kansas enters the postseason with a 19-12 record after facing the No. 10 NET strength of schedule in the country this season. The Jayhawks finished seventh in the Big 12 with an 11-7 league record and defeated three top 25 teams in league play in No. 4 Baylor (87-66), No. 10 Kansas State (58-55) and No. 20 Oklahoma (83-74). In the postseason, Kansas earned its first Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship victory since 2019, defeating BYU 77-53 before falling to No. 6 Texas in the quarterfinals.
Head Coach Brandon Schneider leads the Jayhawks into the NCAA Tournament for the second time, after previously earning a No. 8 seed and going 1-1 in the event in 2022. Kansas claimed the program’s largest margin of victory in an NCAA Tournament game, defeating ninth-seeded Georgia Tech 77-58 before falling to top-seed and No. 2 Stanford in the second round. Last season, Kansas was one of the First Four Out of the NCAA Tournament, and the Jayhawks won six-straight games at Allen Fieldhouse to win the 2023 WNIT Championship.
Kansas is led by four players who earned a spot on the 2023-24 All-Big 12 Women’s Basketball team. Super-senior center Taiyanna Jackson and freshman guard S’Mya Nichols earned a spot on the All-Big 12 First Team, while super-senior guards Zakiyah Franklin and Holly Kersgieter both received honorable mention. Jackson was also selected to the Big 12 All-Defensive Team for the third-straight season, while Nichols also received a spot on the Big 12 All-Freshman Team.
This will be the 15th all-time appearance for Kansas women’s basketball in March Madness, and first since 2022. Prior to that, the Jayhawks went a decade without an appearance after advancing to the Sweet Sixteen in both 2012 and 2013. Kansas first qualified for the tournament in 1987 and 1988 before making nine-straight appearances from 1992-2000.
Michigan enters the 2024 NCAA Tournament with a 20-13 overall record and a 9-9 record in Big Ten play after the Wolverines saw their run in the Big Ten Tournament end to No. 3 Iowa on March 9, 95-68. Michigan has made the NCAA Tournament in six-straight seasons, including an Elite Eight appearance in 2021-22 and a Sweet Sixteen appearance a year prior in 2020-21.
Kansas’ first round matchup with Michigan will be the third meeting in program history between the two schools, including the first since 2010. The Jayhawks won the first meeting in 2009, 77-66 in Lawrence, while Michigan won in Ann Arbor in 2010, 75-67.
The winner of (8) Kansas and (9) Michigan will take on the winner of (1) USC and (16) Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the NCAA Tournament Second Round.
Following the first weekend of games, the 16 advancing teams will move on to play in regionals at MVP Arena in Albany, New York, and Moda Center in Portland, Oregon, on March 9-April 1. The 2024 Final Four will be played on April 5th and 7th at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio.
The game date, time and television information for the first-round matchup will be announced at a later time.
