NCAA women's hoops teams begin punching their tickets to March Madness

The GIST: As you read in yesterday’s Scroll, women’s hoopers began punching their tickets to March Madness this weekend. Tennessee Tech was the first invited to dance after winning the Ohio Valley Conference championship on Saturday, and the list of automatic qualifiers is growing longer by the hour. Here’s who’s snagging ’ships in the most competitive conferences.

Pac-12: The most thrilling tournament run came from Washington State, who scored three straight upsets over No. 3 Utah, No. 20 Colorado and No. 19 UCLA to clinch their first-ever Pac-12 tourney title and fourth-ever March Madness berth. Yesterday’s 65–61 dub over UCLA was particularly scrappy — keep an eye on these Cinderella Cougs once they hit the dance floor.

ACC: They say defense wins championships, and the No. 8 Virginia Tech Hokies are living proof. They held Louisville to a low 37.3 shooting percentage to bring home their first-ever trophy in what some call the country’s toughest conference. Hokies guard Georgia Amoore earned MVP honors after dropping the most threes ever in an ACC tourney.

Big Ten: This final was more beatdown than basketball game: No. 7 Iowa piled onto their 37-point halftime lead to demolish No. 14 Ohio State 105–72 and notch their second straight ’ship. Triple-double queen Caitlin Clark recorded 30 points for the Hawkeyes, closely followed by forward Monika Czinano’s 26. Clint Barton would be proud.

SEC: The No. 1 South Carolina Gamecocks are simply inevitable. They trounced Tennessee 74–58 to grab their seventh tournament title in nine years, leaving no doubt that they’ll be the No. 1 overall Madness seed. Given the transphobic bullsh!t out of the Volunteer State last week, we’re not not saying that South Carolina had karma on their side.

Trophies TBD: With star guard Azzi Fudd finally back from a knee injury, the No. 9 UConn Huskies look ready to roll their way to their 21st (!!!) Big East championship tonight — but not if the No. 11 Villanova Wildcats have anything to say about it. It’s ’Cats vs. Dawgs at 7 p.m. ET on FS1.

• Meanwhile, the Big 12 took their sweet time wrapping up their regular season, so that conference tourney doesn’t tip off until Thursday. Procrastinating queens.