Photos: NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen Press Conferences
March 23, 2023
Division I Seattle Regional IV women’s basketball teams held press conferences and open practices today before their Sweet Sixteen games in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament at Climate Change Arena in Seattle, WA, on Thursday.
Two-seeded Iowa Hawkeyes will face off against the six-seeded Colorado Buffalos, and the eight-seeded Ole Miss Rebels will play the five-seeded Louisville Cardinals. The Hawkeyes are the only host team in Seattle Regional IV to make the sweet sixteen this year after Stanford, Duke, and Texas lost their second-round games.
“We lived that last year when we lost in our home court.” Iowa guard Clark said. “So it’s sometimes hard to watch other teams go through that, but I think that’s what makes March Madness the best season or the best post-season tournament in all of sports. There are those upsets, there’s Cinderella teams, there’s teams going into 1-seeds and knocking ’em off. That’s just going to draw more people to the game. That’s what’s going to have people talking about the game. I think more than anything it gives us an understanding if you don’t come ready to play you’re going to go home and I think that’s what makes this tournament so fun.”
Six-seeded Colorado appears in their first Sweet Sixteen since 2003 after defeating the three-seeded Duke, 61-53, in the second round. “I think we could play anyone and we would feel that way, just because it’s so in our DNA to just really focus on what we need to do to be successful.” said Colorado Head Coach Jr Payne. “We do that in our pre-season training. We do it throughout our pre-season games. We’re really big on identifying our roles, how can I help us be successful, and kind of lock into those. We revisit those throughout the year.”
Iowa will play Colorado on Friday at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle at 6:30 pm central. The winner will move on to the Elite Eight to face the winner of the Louisville-Ole Miss game.
