Western Illinois University senior Addi Brownfield admits to being an extremely hopeful person.
“Every year, it’s me believing ‘This is our year. We can get to “March Madness.” We can do it.’” The belief became reality Sunday evening as Brownfield, the WIU women’s basketball team and its supporters, saw their named unveiled as the pairings for the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship were announced.
WIU will face North Carolina in the First Round.
“It was so awesome,” said Brownfield. “I was expecting us to get a good seeding, but to finally see it up there was just so awesome.”
“It was so much of a different feeling than last time,” said WIU coach JD Gravina, who guided WIU to the NCAA Tournament in 2017. “Getting a pleasant surprise with your seed shows a ton of respect nationally.”
“Getting your name called early I think was really fun. The emotions were still heightened,” he added. “And getting a cool trip somewhere historic like North Carolina, it’s really just a win-win.”
The Leathernecks (26-5, 16-4 OVC) enter the NCAA Tournament as the OVC’s automatic qualifier. WIU defeated Lindenwood for the conference championship, claiming its first tournament title.
The Tar Heels are 26-7, finishing 14-4 in the ACC and are currently ranked No. 15 in the country.
WIU enters as a No. 13 seed, while UNC enters as a No. 4 seed.
“It’s much bigger than people realize,” said Gravina of getting the No. 13 seed. “It’s so hard to get that national respect. It’s huge for our program and our conference. To get a 13 seed definitely elevates our conference.”
“Coming into Western, sometimes we don’t get the respect we deserve,” said Brownfield. “We’re a smaller school from what some see as a smaller conference. To get that recognition on a national level just feels really good.”
“It’s a testament to what this program has been trying to build the last couple of years,” she added. “To be here and to get the job done and get to exactly where we wanted to be, it feels so good.”
The team had eight days from the time it clinched its bid to Sunday’s announcement, leaving it in a state of limbo of sorts.
“It was a weird feeling,” said Gravina. “It was kind of a ‘hurry up and wait.’ But I think that’s fun because the excitement builds. But being the first team to punch our ticket, that was really neat. We got some national media coverage from that.”
“The other fun thing was you got to root for some upsets, which could help our seed,” he added. “It was fun to sit back. We did get a couple of upsets, that definitely helped us.”
“Looking at potential matchups that kind of kept us sane,” said Brownfield. “It kept us patient while we waited for this moment.”
It also gave the team a chance for some muchneeded rest, physically and mentally.
“It was nice to enjoy each other and not being focused on another team or really on anything else,” said Gravina.
But now the work begins. “I think we’ll really be excited to get in the gym and get practicing,” said Graviva.
“I think you build off this excitement,” said Brownfield. “Everyone wants to get in the gym. Everyone wants to prep for this team and see what we can do to potentially shock the world and be a Cinderella team, which would be absolutely amazing and absolutely unreal.”
“We’e going to do our best to prepare for that.”
The First Round matchup will take place Friday in Chapel Hill. The game will tip at 4:30 p.m. CT and will air on ESPNEWS.
