{"id":668398,"date":"2026-03-20T05:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T05:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/668398\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T05:00:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T05:00:20","slug":"tcu-womens-basketball-looks-to-defend-home-court-as-ncaa-tournament-comes-to-fort-worth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/668398\/","title":{"rendered":"TCU women\u2019s basketball looks to defend home court as NCAA Tournament comes to Fort Worth"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) \u2014 TCU<\/a>\u2019s 42-game home winning streak started more than two years ago with a group known as the \u201cUnderfrogs\u201d after that team had to forfeit two games. That extended through last year\u2019s breakout in Hailey Van Lith\u2019s lone season with the Horned Frogs, and now into another NCAA Tournament<\/a> at home with Olivia Miles<\/a>, their playmaking point guard.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s maybe one of the things I\u2019m most proud of … a 42-game winning streak that each team has contributed to,\u201d third-year TCU coach Mark Campbell said Thursday. \u201cI absolutely love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three distinctly different rosters for Campbell, all bolstered by experienced transfers, have been part of the streak that matches Texas for the nation\u2019s longest. Both teams are hosting NCAA regional games again. Third-seeded TCU takes on Big West tournament champion UC San Diego (24-8) on Friday, before sixth-seeded Washington (21-10) plays South Dakota State (27-6) in the other game in Fort Worth.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing able to play last year, make it to March and then continue that this year, I think (Campbell) has just done a great job putting together pieces of a puzzle and making sure that we all fit together, making sure that the culture is right, that our consistency as a team is put together well,\u201d junior guard Donovyn Hunter said.<\/p>\n

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Hunter and senior guard Taylor Bigby are the only returners who played last season when the Horned Frogs made their first NCAA Sweet 16<\/a> after their first Big 12 regular-season title \u2014 which they defended this year<\/a> with newcomers Miles, Marta Suarez and Clara Silva in the starting lineup. That record 34-win season last year included victories over Fairleigh Dickinson<\/a> and Louisville when TCU hosted NCAA Tournament games for the first time.<\/p>\n

There are no players left from Campbell\u2019s first TCU team in 2023-24, a roster with Sedona Prince that started 14-0 before the standout post player broke her finger, then top shooter Madison Conner got hurt. The Frogs were down to six scholarship players when they forfeited two games the week they were having open tryouts on campus<\/a>. That squad started the streak at Schollmaeir Arena by winning its last two home games.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows that we\u2019re able to win with the hand that we\u2019re dealt,\u201d Campbell said. \u201c The \u2018Underfrog\u2019 story<\/a> is so unique and amazing, and I love that they played a part in the winning streak. But to do it 42 games, if you told me that three years ago that you\u2019d have the longest home winning streak in college basketball, men or women, I probably wouldn\u2019t believe you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Old Huskies<\/p>\n

Washington has a roster with four seniors who have stayed together for four seasons, while the team\u2019s leading scorer Sayvia Sellers (18.5 ppg) is a third-year junior.<\/p>\n

The Huskies last season made the NCAA tourney for the first time since a Sweet 16 appearance in 2016-17. They lost a First Four game to Columbia<\/a>, but now have another chance in March Madness.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing back, obviously you have more confidence naturally. We\u2019ve been here before, so just trying to continue to learn, stay in the moment.\u201d said guard Elle Ladine, one of the four-year seniors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the senior class, especially our four seniors that have been here for four years, came into the program, we had a lot of growth ahead of us,\u201d coach Tina Langley said. \u201cIt\u2019s just been really neat to see them continue to help us grow each year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tritons 2 for 2<\/p>\n

UC San Diego has made the NCAA Tournament in both seasons since gaining full Division I postseason eligibility, after losing a First Four game<\/a> to Southern last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year we were really excited to experience actually our first year that we were eligible in Division I,\u201d said Tritons coach Heidi VanDerveer, the sister of Hall of Famer and former Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer. \u201cThis team is totally different than last year\u2019s team. So I think the experience comes from three or four people of embracing a tremendous opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even with some transfers, their leading scorer and rebounder is 6-foot-4 junior forward Erin Condron (15.7 ppg, 8.6 rpg), who is in her third season in the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom when I first entered this program to now, there\u2019s been just insane growth\u201d Condron said. \u201cIt drew me in, the culture that Heidi wanted to create and has continued to build.\u201d<\/p>\n

Streaking Jackrabbits<\/p>\n

South Dakota State brings a 10-game winning streak and its 15th consecutive 20-win season into the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n

The 11th-seeded Jackrabbits from the Summit League have twice won as a double-digit seed, including over seventh-seeded Oklahoma State last March<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The only other programs with such a long streak of 20-win seasons are No. 1 overall seed UConn, Baylor, Louisville and South Carolina.<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/a>Friday\u2019s TV\/Radio listings (March 20)<\/a><\/p>\n

Texas Tech begins its NCAA Tournament journey against Akron amid a loaded First Round slate.<\/p>\n

\"TCU<\/a>Xavier Edmonds\u2019 layup in final seconds lifts TCU to March Madness win over Ohio State<\/a><\/p>\n

The Horned Frogs will face either No. 1 seed Duke in the next round after the Blue Devils survived an upset scare from Siena.<\/p>\n

Find more TCU coverage from <\/b>The Dallas Morning News<\/b> here<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) \u2014 TCU\u2019s 42-game home winning streak started more than two years ago with a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":668399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,10857,7371,7372,40085,62,22503,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-668398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-america","tag-colleges","tag-fort-worth","tag-fortworth","tag-march-madness","tag-sports","tag-tcu-horned-frogs","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116259745224683123","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}