It's been over a week since the Syracuse women's basketball team lost against Louisville in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) quarterfinals, but the Orange learned their NCAA Tournament fate on Sunday night as part of the NCAA Tournament Selection Show. The Orange are headed back to the tournament.

The Orange went 23-8 this season, beating California in the ACC Tournament before losing to Louisville. Syracuse was 12-6 inside conference play, finishing seventh in the league standings. It's been a remarkable turnaround for SU, which went 12-18 a season ago.

Here's what you need to know:

UConn is undefeated (34-0) and the defending national champions, but no one is handing veteran coach Geno Auriemma and the Huskies their 13th national championship trophy just yet. They are led by sophomore Sarah Strong, the favorite for National Player of the Year.

The Huskies are the top overall seed, followed by UCLA (31-1), Texas (31-3) and their fellow Southeastern Conference member, South Carolina (31-3). The Longhorns defeated the Gamecocks 78-61 to win their first SEC tournament title.

UCLA’s only defeat of the season was a 76-65 loss to Texas on Thanksgiving Eve. The Bruins have won 25 consecutive games and have their own National Player of the Year candidate in senior center Lauren Betts.

Syracuse seed: No. 9

Opponent and opponent seed: No. 8 Iowa State

Game date: Saturday, March 21

Game time: 5:30 p.m. ET

Game location: Storrs, Conn.

Syracuse will take on the No. 8 Cyclones, and if they win, they'll battle top-seeded UConn, assuming they get past No. 16 UT-San Antonio.

Syracuse played its first women's basketball season in 1971-1972 as an independent and this season's selection will mark the 14th time that the Orange will play in the NCAA Tournament.

Syracuse had not won a game in the tournament until 2014, when it earned a No. 6 seed and won 59-53 against No. 11 Chattanooga.

Syracuse has only won more than one game in an NCAA tournament one time, and that was in 2016 when the team won five games, advancing to the national title game.

SU was beaten by UConn in that title game, one of the previous 12 national titles for the Huskies. Head coach Felisha Legette-Jack is 1-1 in NCAA Tournament games at Syracuse, earning a victory against Arizona and losing to UConn in 2024. Previously, Legette-Jack won three tournament games as the head coach at Buffalo, where she qualified for the tournament four times from 2012-2022. 

Since 2022, the women have matched the men with a total of 68 teams selected for the annual championship tournament. In both tournaments, 31 bids are determined by automatic bids given to conference tournament champions. The other 37 bids are determined by a selection committee. 

The men's first and second round action will take place from Thursday-Sunday. The women's action starts just one day later and extends to Monday, March 23.  The women's Sweet 16 and Elite Eight will be held in Forth Worth, Texas and Sacramento, Calif. The Final Four and National Championship game are set to be played in Phoenix, Ariz.

The title game is Sunday, April 5, one day before the men's championship game. 

Unlike the men's tournament, the first two rounds of the women's tournament are held at campus sites. There are 16, four-team pods that make up the 64-team field (once the "First Four" games happen. The top 16 teams and the host venues were released on Saturday, prior to the Selection Show. This is why Syracuse is playing in Storrs. UConn is the host of that four-team pod.

The First Four games are being held on Wednesday and Thursday. 

In alphabetical order (via USA Today):

According to a report from television reporter Ashley Wenskoski, star point guard Dominique Darius is out for the NCAA Tournament after injuring her hand in the ACC Tournament.

Note: Brady Farkas and Jami Leabow contributed to this report.

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