WBB DANCING WITH AT-LARGE NCAA BERTH
3/16/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
NCAA Bracket 
| NCAA Tournament Central
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - For the first time in two decades the Seton Hall University women's basketball team has been invited to the "Big Dance," as Monday night the Pirates were awarded an at-large berth into the NCAA Championship. Seton Hall received a No. 9 seed in the Albany, N.Y., Region and will face No. 8 seed Rutgers in the first round on Saturday, March 21, in Storrs, Conn., at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN 2.
It is just the third time in program history and the first since 1995 Seton Hall will participate in the NCAA Tournament. In just his second season on the job, head coach Anthony Bozzella has guided the Pirates to a program record 28 wins, the first BIG EAST Regular Season title in program history, and now to the NCAA Tournament.
It is a remarkable turnaround for a program that prior to Bozzella's arrival had not experienced a winning season since 2008-09 and had not played any postseason basketball since a WNIT berth in 2007. Seton Hall enters the NCAA Tournament with a 28-5 overall record, the most wins the Pirates have ever posted in a single season, and SHU was 15-3 in the BIG EAST to grab the top seed in the conference tournament for the first time.
Seton Hall is 3-2 all-time in NCAA Championship play. The Pirates advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 during their first trip to the NCAA Tournament in 1994, and played into the Second Round in 1995.
In the other half of SHU's bracket, No. 1 overall seed University of Connecticut will host No. 16 St. Francis (N.Y.) on Saturday night at 9 p.m. The winners or Saturday's first round games will meet in the second round on Monday, March 23, with a Sweet 16 berth on the line.
Seton Hall is obviously quite familiar with two of the other three teams seeded in Storrs, as first-round opponent Rutgers and Connecticut are both former members of the BIG EAST Conference.
The Pirates last faced Rutgers just a year ago in a double overtime thriller in the third round of the WNIT in Piscataway. Seton Hall led that game by one when a foul was called with 0.2 seconds remaining. Briyona Canty hit one at the line to force overtime, with the Scarlet Knights ultimately prevailing 91-79 after a pair of extra sessions.
This will be the 43rd all-time meeting between Seton Hall and Rutgers, which will have now faced one another at least once each year since 1994. The Scarlet Knights lead the series 33-9.
This year's SHU squad boasts accomplishments that had not been seen since those back-to-back NCAA berths or since the advent of the program. The Pirates started 21-2 for the first time, and tied a pair of best-starts with a 13-1 overall record and 10-1 mark in BIG EAST play.
As Seton Hall sprinted out to a 13-1 record it posted a 12-game winning streak, which tied a school record set back in the early 1980's, and The Hall won its first 15 home games of the year to post a 20-game home winning streak for just the second time, since those NCAA teams from 1993-95.
Bozzella has instituted a fast-paced offensive system that has seen Seton Hall score a program record 75.8 ppg, which ranks 18th in the nation. The Pirates' 2,503 points scored this year are already a single-season record. Bozzella has already been tabbed as the BIG EAST Coach of the Year and is one of 10 semifinalists for the Naismith National Women's College Basketball Coach of the Year.
On the court, Seton Hall is led by a guard trio that matches up with any backcourt in the country in graduates Ka-Deidre Simmons and Daisha Simmons, and junior Tabatha Richardson-Smith.
Ka-Deidre Simmons, a First-Team All-BIG EAST Player, will undoubtedly conclude her career as one of the most accomplished players in Seton Hall history. She ranks first all-time with 554 assists, setting a single-season record with 186 in 2014-15, and is second in scoring (1,712) and steals (255). Simmons was also named to the Nancy Lieberman Award Midseason Watch List and the Naismith Player of the Year Midseason 30 List.
Daisha Simmons also garnered First-Team All-BIG EAST accolades, and was also tabbed as the league's Defensive Player of the Year, the first SHU player to win the award. She ranked third in the league averaging 18.3 ppg and first with 2.8 steals per game.
Richardson-Smith was Second-Team All-BIG EAST despite posting stats that garnered First-Team consideration as she was fifth in the BIG EAST in scoring (17.4 ppg), third in rebounding (8.5 rpg), fourth in steals (2.1 spg) and third in 3-pointers per game (2.5). After tying her own SHU single-game record with 38 points in a win over Illinois, she was named the USBWA National Player of the Week.
Tickets can be purchased beginning Tuesday, March 17. Additional information will be posted on SHUPirates.com.
