Cal Set To Go Dancing

BERKELEY – For the first time in six years, the California women’s basketball team has been invited to participate in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, receiving an at-large bid which was announced on ESPN’s Selection Sunday show. The Golden Bears will be the eight seed and will face 9 seed Mississippi State in the first round on Saturday in Los Angeles as part of the Spokane 4 Region.

This marks the first ever meeting between the two programs.

The Bears’ last NCAA Tournament appearance came during the 2018-19 season when they reached the second round. This will be Cal’s 15th all-time trip to the NCAA Tournament, with its best run coming in 2013 when the Bears reached the Final Four for the only time in program history. The Bears have an all-time record of 12-11 in the NCAA Tournament.

In its first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Cal put together an impressive resume which includes its first 25-win season since 2012-13, a program record for home wins (16-1 at Haas Pavilion), multiple wins over ranked opponents and ACC weekend sweeps, and eight straight weeks being ranked on the AP Top 25 poll. The Bears have a 25-8 overall record and finished 12-6 in ACC play to finish seventh in the conference. Cal also advanced to the quarterfinals of this year’s ACC Tournament before getting edged out by No. 6 Notre Dame.

This year’s team features All-ACC Second Team selection Ioanna Krimili - who is the country’s active leader for career 3-pointers - and ACC All-Tournament Second Team pick Marta Suarez. In addition to Krimili and Suarez, Cal boasts one of the nation’s most dynamic teams with three other players who average 10+ points per game in Michelle Onyiah, Lulu Twidale and Kayla Williams – making it just one of six teams in the country with five players averaging double-figure scoring. 

To celebrate the team’s invitation to the tournament, the program hosted a watch party at California Memorial Stadium. For video of the team and fan reaction please click HERE.

This marks the first NCAA Tournament appearance in Charmin Smith’s six seasons as Cal’s head coach.

“We're going to celebrate, we're going to dance, we're going to enjoy every single moment of this, because I do believe nothing's guaranteed,” Smith said.  “I want them to enjoy this as much as possible every single moment. So today was a lot of fun. It was a great day. So cool to see our name pop up, to know the whole time that our name was going to be called, to not be worried about them. It's a great day for our program.”