IU women grateful to host first two rounds of NCAA Tournament, prepare for formidable Fairfield

BLOOMINGTON ‒ The IU women's basketball team will get to sleep in its own beds this week.

After a week on the national-seeding bubble, the Hoosiers barely nabbed a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament. IU was the No. 16 overall national seed ‒ the final seed that gets to host games. The first two rounds will be at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.

"It's obviously really special, and something that not every single team is blessed to have," senior guard Chloe Moore-McNeil said of playing at Assembly Hall again this season. "And I think we're all just grateful that we can do that, and that it can be at least two more times."

Indiana was firmly on the 4-seed line going into last week's Big Ten tournament, but that seeding went up in limbo after the Hoosiers lost to unranked Michigan in the quarterfinals. The Hoosiers had to wait with bated breath on their tournament location.

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IU will host No. 13 Fairfield (31-1), which is ranked No. 25 by the Associated Press, in the first round. No. 5 Oklahoma and No. 12 Florida Gulf Coast play on the other side of the bracket.

"We know how hard it is to be able to host," head coach Teri Moren said. "We were hopeful. Some things had to happen this week that went our way, but anytime that you have an opportunity to play at home in front of your home fans, we're not just excited, but really grateful that it worked out the way we wanted it to."

It's a tough draw, no doubt. Fairfield has won 29 straight games, its only loss coming to Vanderbilt. Fairfield also beat Rutgers, the one common opponent the Hoosiers and Stags have this season.

Fairfield beat Rutgers 78-54 on the Scarlet Knights' home court in Piscataway, New Jersey. But that was months ago, Moren said ‒ both Fairfield and IU are different teams now.

"I didn't realize that they played Rutgers, but I don't know if that matters, because I'm gonna guess it probably happened pre-conference," Moren said. "Just like us, we're a different team now than we were in November, in December. Our preparation will start, it'll be surrounded or around those teams, probably the last, 5-10 teams that they played."

The Stags play in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, taking on teams like Niagara, Saint Peter's, and Canisius. Fairfield only played two high-major teams throughout the season, and it went 1-1. Three of the Hoosiers' five losses have come against ranked teams. IU has two wins over ranked opponents, including a top-5 win over Iowa in February.

IU will also have the advantage going into what will likely be a raucous Assembly Hall. Fairfield played in front of 1,309 fans at Rutgers, while IU hosted over 17,000 against Iowa. The Hoosiers averaged over 10,000 fans a game, and Assembly Hall should be packed for the first round.

"I wanted just to get another chance to play in front of Hoosier nation ... and I hope they show up for us, and I know they will," senior Mackenzie Holmes said. "We have the best fans in the country, so I'm really excited to get a chance this week to play a couple more times at Assembly Hall."

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The Hoosiers should be favored. If IU makes it out of the first weekend, it will likely have a date with No. 1 overall seed South Carolina in the Sweet 16 of the Albany 1 region. Despite losing their entire starting lineup from last season's Final Four team to the WNBA, the Gamecocks are undefeated (32-0).

But no matter the prestige of the opponent, Moren said, the Hoosiers will be prepared.

"Our body of work throughout the season has proven time and time again that this is a team that's competitive, it's a team that's connected, it's a team that's mature, experienced," Moren said. "Anytime you get into this tournament, it's gonna be hard. There's gonna be challenges no matter who you play, whether first round, second round, and so forth. I think we're prepared. We're excited."

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IU women grateful to host first two rounds of NCAA Tournament, prepare for formidable Fairfield