LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Never before in the existence of the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship tournament has a 14 seed defeated a 3 seed, going 0-fer in 88 tries.
But never before in the existence of the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship tournament have the Sugar Bears been involved.
Though the odds will be stacked against them greatly on Friday when 14th-seeded Central Arkansas (28-3) meets up with 8th-ranked and 3rd-seeded Louisville (25-7) at 1:30pm central on ESPN2, the Sugar Bears will have a chance to do what they've done all season.
Make history.
Having already tied the program's overall wins record and broken program records for wins in a Division I season, wins in a regular season, conference wins and claimed the program's first Southland Conference Tournament championship and recorded the most wins in the Southland since 2000 – all despite being picked 7th in the Southland preseason polls – this year's Sugar Bear team is no stranger to pulling the upset.
It will be a tall task, however, on the home floor of one of the nation's best teams – making its sixth straight NCAA tournament appearance and 19th overall.
"This is an exciting time for us," said head coach Sandra Rushing, making her first Division I NCAA tournament of her 27-year head coaching career. "It's been an amazing journey with this group of young ladies. They're a very special group. They've worked extremely hard this year, and I can't say enough about this team, and I'm really happy, again, for the team, for our seniors, my coaching staff, our University and the city of Conway. To be the first team to make it to the NCAAs says a lot about these young ladies and the price that they've paid this year."
The Sugar Bears enter the tournament as one of six teams with at least 15 wins away from home this season, sitting at 15-1 in road and neutral-site games, having won the last 15 after the early-season loss at Tennessee. Only top-ranked UConn (19-0), No. 1 seed South Carolina (17-0) and Colorado State (16-1) have fared better away from their home courts this season.
The Cardinals have had great success in the NCAA tournament, and as a 3 seed in recent years have advanced to one Final Four (2009), another Elite Eight (2014) and last year went to the Sweet 16.
"They're at home, and they do a lot of things well," Rushing said. "My concern is our players being on the big stage for the first time. I want them to go in and realize, hey, we've got to give it our best shot. Louisville is going to push the ball. They're going to D us up. When we shoot the ball, we've got to relax, and when we get an open shot, we've got to take that open shot because we don't need to just continue … make some passes that we've been been able to make in the past. We've got to cut down our passing, our long passes, and we've got to try to get to the rim."
Whether or not they get to the rim, the Sugar Bears have already gotten where they have worked since June to get – in the tournament, with a shot at history.
"It's an amazing feeling to know that I've had the opportunity to watch this team from June and how much they've grown and matured and bought in," Rushing said. "We've talked about championships since – well, we talked about it for years. I've got Maggie and Mimi and Bri that's been with me the longest, and we've always talked about getting to the big dance, and that hard work is going to pay off.
Just to see them walking into the arena right here or just getting on the plane or cutting down the nets on Sunday, it was just so emotional and makes me so proud. This is a unique group of young women."
