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UPDATED: UCF Women’s Basketball’s Twitter account has officially announced that they are in fact in the field of 64.
We've been dancing all year, why stop now
— UCF Women's Hoops (@UCF_WBB) March 18, 2019
First at-large bid in school history ‼️ #ChargeOn pic.twitter.com/aWgyeilXkC
It’s the first bid to the NCAA Tournament for the Knights since 2011, and the first-ever at-large bid in program history.
Here’s the Knights’ reaction:
The moment we saw our name on the screen #GKMO pic.twitter.com/2ZnkkQzYw7
— UCF Women's Hoops (@UCF_WBB) March 18, 2019
UCF will play 5-seed Arizona State Friday at 7 p.m. in Coral Gables. As it turns out, both UCF basketball teams will play their first round NCAA Tournament games within a few hours of one another on Friday night.
⚔️ vs.
— UCF Women's Hoops (@UCF_WBB) March 18, 2019
Ready for the Madness #GKMO pic.twitter.com/i0FAUSQBDk
Our third reaction wasn’t our best ♀️
— UCF Women's Hoops (@UCF_WBB) March 18, 2019
Still pumped to be dancing!#GKMO | #ncaaW pic.twitter.com/NMlDrpUumL
ESPN confirmed the accidental leak of the bracket, and went ahead and revealed officially it two hours before the scheduled selection show:
ESPN Statement Regarding the NCAA Women’s Tournament Bracket https://t.co/NpWbMoDCV2 pic.twitter.com/zffGXI6BTx
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) March 18, 2019
The salt is real:
Official statement on the early reveal of the 2019 NCAA DI Women's Basketball bracket: #ncaaW pic.twitter.com/kwoQ4Bw0SZ
— NCAA WBB (@ncaawbb) March 18, 2019
Earlier:
If the Twitter account belonging to Minnesota Whitecaps rinkside reporter Blake DuDonis is to believed, the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament Bracket has been accidentally leaked by accident live on ESPN’s air, and the UCF Knights are in:
Check this out:
In what can only be described as remarkable, the #NCAAW bracket was just on ESPNU by mistaken. I’ve managed to grab three sections of it if anyone else wants to help fill it out.
— Blake DuDonis (@BlakeDuDonis) March 18, 2019
Spoiler: UCF & Tennessee are IN pic.twitter.com/xzpKpGpjdT
As DuDonis described, UCF is in this field. They would be a 12-seed facing Arizona State in the first round in Coral Gables, alongside Miami and Florida Gulf Coast.
DuDonis later posted what he believes to be the entire field that he saw on ESPN:
Here is your #NCAAW bracket in its entirety pic.twitter.com/5KtmekGvR4
— Blake DuDonis (@BlakeDuDonis) March 18, 2019
Now, we don’t know if this is for sure legit or not, or perhaps a rehearsal or something like that, but it certainly looks legit.
Except for the part about UConn being a 2-seed.
Yup, it was totally legit, and UConn is a 2-seed.
UCF Women’s Basketball’s Twitter feed had some thoughts:
* checks Twitter *
— UCF Women's Hoops (@UCF_WBB) March 18, 2019
Props to Megan Herboth of UCF Athletics for an all-star-level improvisational tour de force today.
Selection show plans get thrown out the window in less than 30 minutes? Improvise.
— Megan Herboth (@MeganHerboth) March 19, 2019
HUGE thank you to @EricDeSalvo, @ctothep20, @DanForcella, @kellyfavre4 and @samikincaid
And thanks to @Ny_12shuler for helping fill the locker room at the last minute!
So yeah, that was all really weird.
But for UCF, all’s well that ends well, and today ended with both basketball teams in the NCAA Tournament in the same year for the first time in school history, not to mention Football also being in a New Year’s Six Bowl game.
Not just a football school...
— UCF Knights (@UCFKnights) March 18, 2019
We’re an school. #ChargeOn pic.twitter.com/7nKWC6xKYj
We've been dancing all year, why stop now
— UCF Women's Hoops (@UCF_WBB) March 18, 2019
First at-large bid in school history ‼️ #ChargeOn pic.twitter.com/aWgyeilXkC