For the second year in a row, the Virginia Tech women’s basketball team will host the early round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Hokies (24-7) clinched the No. 4 seed in their 16-team bracket when the NCAA pairings and seedings were announced Sunday night.
“We were all screaming because we knew we were going to be back in Cassel,” Tech coach Kenny Brooks said Sunday night on a video conference call. “I’m very excited to be home.
“I was nervous [about whether Tech would get to host]. … You want to be able to play in front of our home fans.
“I thought our work was worthy of a 4 seed, but when you’re dealing with the NCAA, you never know.”
The top four seeds in each of the four brackets will host a first-round doubleheader and a second-round doubleheader.
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“Every time the 5-12 game comes up [on the ESPN screen] and it wasn’t us, our girls breathed a sigh of relief,” Brooks said. “I was one of those who breathed a sigh of relief when we weren’t seeded No. 5.”
The Hokies will host No. 13 seed Marshall (26-6) in the Round of 16 on Friday or Saturday.
Unlike last year, there will be four NCAA tournaments at Cassell instead of three.
Vanderbilt (22-9) and Columbia (23-6) will battle it out in a First Four first-round game in Cassel on Wednesday for the right to be seeded No. 12 and play No. 5 seed Baylor (24- 7) in the Round of 16 at Cassell. There are four opening round matches in the 68-team tournament.
The Tech-Marshall winner will play Baylor, Vandy or Columbia in the Round of 16 at Cassell on Sunday or Monday.
There are only two sites for the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight – Albany, New York and Portland, Oregon.
The winner of the Blacksburg action will play a Sweet 16 game in one of the regional tournaments in Portland. If Tech makes the Sweet 16, its likely foe will be Pac-12 tournament champion Southern Cal, which is seeded No. 1 in the bracket. Southern Cal features freshman sensation JuJu Watkins.
If Tech advances to the Elite Eight, its likely foe will be No. 2 seed Ohio State or No. 3 seed UConn. Tech beat Ohio State in the Elite Eight last year in Seattle.
The Final Four will be held in Cleveland, Ohio.
Virginia Tech was seeded No. 1 last year when it reached the Final Four for the first time.
The Hokies, who won the ACC regular season title this year, competed for the No. 1 seed in their penultimate regular season game this year at Notre Dame. But the Hokies have lost three of their last four games.
Tech star Elizabeth Kitley suffered an apparent left knee injury in the team’s loss to Virginia in the regular season finale. The three-time ACC Player of the Year has not played since that game. Brooks would only list Sunday’s injury as a lower leg injury.
Without Kitley, the Hokies defeated Miami in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament, but fell to Notre Dame in the semifinals.
But the tournament selection committee thought Tech still deserved a spot in the top four.
“After Liz came out, we saw two games with them after her injury,” committee chairwoman Lisa Peterson said Sunday on an NCAA video conference call. “We are not sure if she will come back or not. But we got to see what they look like without her. You can’t forget the job they’ve done, but you’ve also seen what they’ve done in the last two games. So I felt like line 4 was the best place for them.”
Brooks said Sunday that there was no update on Kitley.
“S [the team not playing] last week we were able to slow down,” Brooks said. “I haven’t seen her much. I think this week is going to be more of a recruitment drive to see where she’s really at.
“Liz has a lot of basketball left to play and her health and safety are paramount. So this week is going to be really big.”
Any chance Kitley plays in the first round?
“Everything has a chance. We just haven’t tested it yet,” Brooks said. “If Liz didn’t have a future in basketball, we might as well have tried it last week. But we want to make sure that everything is okay with her and that she can have a positive impact for us. This week will definitely determine that. We’ll push it some more and see what happens.”
Tech is 8-1 all-time against Marshall, but the teams haven’t met since December 1992.
Marshall, which is in the NCAA for the first time since 1997, went 17-1 in Sun Belt play to win the Sun Belt regular season title. Marshall beat James Madison 95-92 in overtime to win the Sun Belt Tournament.
Ties at No. 4 for the second-best seed Tech has ever made in the NCAAs. Tech, which reached the NCAA Sweet 16 in 1999, was also a No. 4 seed.
This is the fifth time Tech has hosted the NCAAs.
This will be Tech’s 13th NCAA appearance, including its fourth straight.
Virginia Tech is one of three Virginia teams in the field, along with No. 10 seed Richmond and No. 15 seed Norfolk State.
Tech is one of eight ACC teams in the field, along with Notre Dame Notre Dame, North Carolina State No. 6, Louisville No. 6 Syracuse No. 7 Duke, No. 8 North Carolina and No. 9 seed Florida State. Miami stayed away.
In addition to Southern Cal, the other No. 1 seeds are South Carolina, Iowa and Texas.
Presbyterian, which defeated Radford in the Big South tournament final, will play a first-round game against Sacred Heart for the right to play South Carolina in the round of 16.
