NASHVILLE — Vanderbilt coach Shea Ralph spent 20 minutes Friday walking around historic Memorial Gymnasium, soaking in the atmosphere with March Madness branding everywhere the day before the action was set to begin in Music City.
Ralph has spent five seasons as the program’s head coach building toward this moment, with the Commodores hosting on the opening weekend of the NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournament for the first time since 2012 among the goals.
“It’s almost surreal to be sitting in the building looking at all the signs, going on the court and seeing that we’re hosting the NCAA tournament in terms of just checking off the next box on our list of things as we continue to strive for championships,” Ralph said.
This season’s Commodores (27-4) are seeded second in Regional 1, which will play its Sweet 16 games next weekend in Fort Worth, Texas, after receiving the 30th NCAA tourney berth in program history, and this is the third straight under Ralph at Vanderbilt, which strung together 15 straight appearances from 1999 to 2014. Vanderbilt also has one Final Four trip (1993) on its resumé.
Vanderbilt went undefeated at Memorial during the recently completed regular season the way to earning the program’s highest seed since 2007, and the Southeastern Conference’s Commodores will try to make the most of it when they face No. 15 seed High Point (27-5) of the Big South Conference in the first round at 7 p.m. Eastern on Saturday. The winner plays again Monday at Memorial, facing the winner of Saturday’s second game on the same floor between seventh-seeded Illinois (21-11) of the Big Ten and No. 10 seed Colorado (22-11) of the Big 12.
Ralph said being able to host helps as Vanderbilt works to fill the stands more to create a true home-court advantage.
“Hopefully if we take care of business at home … then you’re in the Sweet 16,” said Ralph, a former All-America guard who played at Connecticut from 1996 to 2001, a stretch in which the Huskies won the 2000 NCAA tournament and reached the Final Four again in her final season.
Ralph is 1-2 in the tournament with Vanderbilt, with her lone win at a First Four game in 2024. The Commodores dropped their NCAA opener last year in overtime to Oregon, a loss that is driving All-America sophomore guard Mikayla Blakes.
“Knowing what it felt like last year losing in the first round and not wanting to feel that again the rest of my career,” said Blakes, who was the SEC player of the year and national scoring leader this season after already standing out as a freshman.
Vanderbilt and High Point share common ground in that the men’s and women’s programs at each school received NCAA berths this year.
Both men’s teams won in the first round Thursday, with South Region No. 5 seed Vanderbilt beating 12th-seeded McNeese 78-68 in Oklahoma City, while West Region No. 12 seed High Point upset fifth-seeded Wisconsin 83-82 in Portland, Oregon. The second round of the men’s tournament begins Saturday, and it will be a busy night for High Point and Vanderbilt basketball fans tracking all the action.
The High Point women were paying attention to what their male counterparts were doing Thursday, with Panthers point guard Aaliyah Collins watching the game on her phone with roommates screaming.
“We were going crazy,” guard Macy Spencer said. “It’s just great that both teams are in the tournament, and they pulled that off, and hopefully we can get another one.”
The High Point women are seeking their first NCAA Division I tournament win in their third trip, all coming since 2021.
Colorado and Illinois are both in the big bracket for the third time in a four-year span, and while the Buffaloes with a win Saturday would be one step away from a third straight Sweet 16 and eighth overall, the Fighting Illini have advanced beyond the opening week of the tourney just twice, doing so in back-to-back seasons in 1997 and 1998.
Illinois coach Shauna Green had to replace four starters from last year’s team that reached the second round before losing to top-seeded Texas — which advanced to the Final Four — giving her the youngest team in the Big Ten this season. The Illini started 14-3 and moved into The Associated Press Top 25 poll in January.
Now the Illini are the youngest team in this tournament.
“The good thing about youth is sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know,” Green said. “They just come and they play. I’m really proud of us. A lot people might not have thought we would get here with such a young roster. They continue to be resilient and step up, and they’ll be ready to go.”
Their coach has some knowledge that can help make sure of that.
Not only is Memorial a bit different with an elevated court, team benches are on opposite end lines rather than on the sideline separated by a scorers’ table. Luckily, this is nothing new for the Illinois coach.
Green not only played at Memorial during her time as a Canisius forward, she was a Dayton assistant coach for a game on this court. The coaching box has been extended up the sideline closer to the half-court line, though, making it easier for coaches to talk to their players.
“When I’m yelling at them and they start saying they can’t hear me, I’ve already done that one as a player,” Green said. “You can hear me.”
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