COLUMBIA, S.C. — We now know who the South Carolina women's basketball team will face to begin the NCAA Tournament, but we found out a little earlier than expected.
The bracket for the women's tournament was revealed at 5 p.m. Monday. The Gamecocks will be a four-seed in the tournament, and will open up play in Charlotte, NC against 13-seed Belmont Friday at 1:45 p.m.
However, that announcement was not supposed to be made until 7 p.m.. The bracket, though, was mistakenly revealed on ESPNU in the mid-afternoon. The network then made the decision to show their bracket reveal special earlier than planned after the error.
"An unfortunate technical error by ESPN revealed the 2019 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship bracket earlier today," the NCAA said in a statement. "We regret the network's mistake and are working with our partners at ESPN to prevent similar errors in future years."
The Gamecocks finished the season with a 21-9 mark, and were 13-3 in SEC play. The team was knocked out of the SEC Tournament by Arkansas last week.
The University of South Carolina was granted a waiver by the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Committee to host the 2019 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament First & Second Rounds in Charlotte. The games will take place at Halton Arena, on the campus of UNC Charlotte. The 9,100-seat arena hosts Charlotte 49er home men's and women's basketball games during the season.
The women couldn't play in Columbia, even though they had the right to host, because the NCAA men's tournament is taking place at the Colonial Life Arena in Columbia. It's the first time in 49 years the tournament has been played in South Carolina's capital.