Michigan State women's basketball's March Madness opponent is North Carolina in 2024 NCAA tournament
Michigan State women's basketball is heading to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2021.
The Spartans will be a No. 9 seed and face North Carolina, No. 8 seed in Regional 1 of the NCAA women's basketball tournament, ending a two-year tourney drought. MSU earned their bid after finishing 22-8 under first-year head coach Robyn Fralick; it's the most wins for the MSU women since 2015-16, when they went 25-9.
The day and time for the game hasn't been announced yet but the contest will be played in Columbia, South Carolina.
MSU finished the regular season 22-7 with a 12-6 record in conference play, entering the Big Ten tourney as the No. 4 seed, the Spartans' highest finish since 2016. MSU was bounced in its quarterfinal opener by No. 5 seed Nebraska, but still had a strong enough résumé to earn an at-large bid.
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MSU finished with the second-best offense in the Big Ten and sixth-best offense nationally, averaging 83.7 points per game. MSU had the conference's sixth-best defense, holding opponents to 67.3 points per game in league play, to boast an average scoring margin of plus-16.4, also second-best in the conference behind Iowa.
The team is led by a pair of fifth-year seniors, Moira Joiner and Julia Ayrault. The 6-foot-2 Ayrault is averaging 15.4 points, 7.2 rebounds, 2.1 blocks and 1.2 steals per game, earning first-team All-Big Ten honors. Joiner was a second-team All-Big Ten honoree for averaging 14.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.3 steals per game while shooting 43.2% (76-for-176) from 3 as the team's primary sharpshooter.
The Spartans also had two other players, junior DeeDee Hagemann and sophomore Theryn Hallock, earn conference honors. Hagemann, who won Miss Basketball at Detroit Edison, made second-team All-Big Ten for her work as the team's point guard, averaging 12.4 points, 5.1 assists and 2.4 rebounds while shooting 41.4% (41-for-99) from 3. Hallock was named Big Ten Sixth Player of the Year for her work off the bench, averaging 11.1 points, 2.7 assists, 2.2 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game.
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MSU got off to a hot start to the season, cruising to a 10-1 record in nonconference play with its only loss coming to Creighton in the Cancun Challenge in Mexico. MSU dropped two of its first three conference games, though, losing to Nebraska at home and Iowa on the road on a buzzer-beater, before beating Maryland and dropping to Ohio State to move to 2-3 in conference. Then they won five of their next six games, dropped back-to-back games to Indiana and Ohio State, before finishing the regular season with a five-game winning streak.
Fralick, who grew up in Okemos before playing ball at Davidson in North Carolina, built Bowling Green State into a winner before replacing Suzy Merchant, who led the program for 16 seasons. Fralick reached the WNIT and WBI in three of her five seasons at BGSU following a three-season run at Ashland in which she went 104-3 and won the 2017 Division II national title.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State women's basketball's March Madness opponent is North Carolina
