It's been a weekend of big ups and downs in the Power 5 women's basketball tournament, making Sunday a historic day for championship games. Miami (ACC) and Utah (Pac-12) are playing in their conference title matches for the first time. Indiana (Big Ten) will try to win their league title for the first time in 20 years, and Kentucky (SEC) for the first time in 40 years.
The Hurricanes and Wildcats are the No. 7 seeds in their tournaments, while the Utes are No. 6 and the Hoosiers No. 5. Standing in their way, however, will be three league top seeds who are also billed as the NCAA No. 1 seeds. : NC State, South Carolina and Stanford, and another team is projected into the NCAA's top 16: Iowa.
The ACC Finals begins the day (ESPN, afternoon ET) with the Wolfpack vs. Hurricanes in Greensboro, North Carolina. Regular-season champions NC State have won the last two ACC tournament titles. Miami, who joined the ACC in 2004, entered the championship game by defeating No. 2 seed Louisville 61–59 on a buzzer-beater on Friday and No. 3 seed Notre Dame 57–54 on Saturday.
"I thought it was a great representation of college athletics," Miami coach Katie Meier said after the Storm's win over the Irish. "I thought it was a lot of fun. We came into this tournament because of 'almost' being sick. Today 'almost' wasn't going to happen."
Miami, 20-11, have won eight of their last nine matches. NC State, 28–3, suffered their only ACC loss to Notre Dame on February 1. The Wolfpack won a 76–64 win over the Hurricanes in Miami on January 9.
Kentucky began SEC play 2–8 and at one point it appeared that the NCAA tournament was out of contention. The Wildcats went 1–8 from January 9 to February 10, a segment that began and ended with a loss to regular-season champion South Carolina. But Kentucky has since won nine in a row and is in its first SEC Finals since 2014.
In a battle for coaches, who were once teammates in Tennessee, Kentucky's Kyra Elzie defeated Lady Walls Kelly Harper 83-74 in the semifinals on Saturday. Kentucky senior Rhine Howard, No. 2, led the Wildcats with 24 points, 9 rebounds, and 7 assists in ESPN's latest WNBA mock draft. In his three SEC tournament games to date, he averages 23.3 points.
South Carolina, 29-1, defeated Ole Miss 61-51 on Saturday. Gamecock has won six of the last seven SEC tournaments. Kentucky's lone SEC tournament crown came in 1982; The Wildcats lost in the finals in 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2014. The teams will meet for the championship in Nashville, Tennessee (ESPN, 2 p.m. ET).
"I think we have a lot of momentum and a lot of confidence in ourselves," Howard said. "So just stay tuned. It's going to be great."
The Big Ten Finals (ESPN2, 4 p.m. ET) in Indianapolis will pit No. 2 seed Iowa against Indiana. The teams met one after another on 19 and 21 February, with the Hawkeye capturing both 96–91 and 88–82. On Saturday, Indiana beat No. 1 seed Ohio State 70-62, while Iowa collected 41 points and 10 rebounds from sophomore guard Caitlin Clark in an 83-66 win over No. 6 seed Nebraska.
22-7 Hockey has won the Big Ten Finals three times: 1997, 2001 and 2019. Indiana, 22-7, has also played the final only once since the Big Ten tournament began in 1995; The Hoosiers defeated Penn State for the 2002 title.
The Pac-12 tournament began in 2002, and is heading for its 15th title at Stanford Sunday (ESPN 2, 6 p.m. ET). The Cardinals, 27-3, were the only Power 5 team to remain unbeaten in league play this year. The defending national champion won his Pac-12 semifinal Friday in Las Vegas over Colorado 71-45.
The Utes, 20-10, joined the Pac-12 in 2011 and their first winning conference record this year was 8-7. They defeated No. 11 Seed Cal, No. 3 Washington State and No. 2 Oregon to reach the finals.