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  • March Madness: Women’s hoops makes 22nd straight NCAA tourney, men head to Crown

    // Posted In Athletics, Honors

    Darianna Littlepage-Buggs and Taliah Scott celebrate on the court

    For the 22nd straight year (!!), Baylor women’s basketball is headed to the NCAA tournament!

    To put that in perspective, only one player on the team — graduate student Jana Van Gytenbeek — was even born the last time the Baylor women missed the NCAA tournament. (That came in March 2003, when BU finished as WNIT runners-up; two years later, the program won its first national championship.)

    This year’s Bears will begin NCAA tournament play on Friday (1 p.m. CT, ESPN) in Durham, N.C., against the winner of Wednesday’s play-in game between Nebraska and Richmond. The Huskers finished the 2026 season at 18-12 overall, 7-11 in Big Ten play, while Richmond went 26-7, 15-3 in Atlantic 10 play.

    Head coach Nicki Collen’s squad finished the regular season at No. 21 in the AP poll, thanks to a 24-7 overall record (13-5 in Big 12 play) and a third-place Big 12 Conference finish. Baylor is led by four All-Big 12 honorees, including first-team selection Taliah Scott, who together extended Baylor’s streak of NCAA appearances — the third-longest active streak in the country, behind only Tennessee (44) and UConn (37).

    If the Bears win their first-round match-up, they will face either No. 8-ranked Duke or Charleston on Sunday for a spot in the Sweet 16. Tickets to the games at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium are available now.

    The Baylor men, meanwhile, are headed to Las Vegas for the College Basketball Crown, where they’ll face Minnesota on April 1 (9:30 p.m. CT, FS1). The eight-team bracket also includes Colorado, Creighton, Oklahoma, Rutgers, Stanford and West Virginia.

    Head coach Scott Drew’s squad features a pair of projected NBA first-round picks in Cameron Carr and Tounde Yessoufou, but injuries and the challenge of turning over the complete roster in one year proved limiting factors this season. Even so, the Bears are into the postseason for the 16th time in 17 years — an era that includes 13 NCAA tournaments, five Sweet 16s, three Elite Eights, and the 2021 national championship, plus an NIT championship and an NIT runner-up finish.

    Sic ’em, Baylor men’s & women’s basketball!