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There was a lot of confusion today, but ultimately the Hogs women’s hoops team missed out on the NCAA Tournament. They were listed as one of the final eight teams in consideration for an at-large bid by the NCAA. But it appeared that ESPN mistakenly leaked the tournament bracket hours before it was set to be revealed.
And yeah, people noticed.
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
It was then apparent that was in fact the real bracket and ESPN both apologized and moved up the 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 entire bracket can be seen here. Arkansas was behind Auburn, Indiana, Tennessee, and UCF as the final at-large teams. Princeton was on the list as well but won their conference tournament for an automatic bid.
The late SEC Tournament wins over South Carolina and Texas A&M gave the Hogs a lot of late momentum, but the committee saw the Hogs’ 20-14 record as coming up just short. That all but guarantees the Hogs are going to be in the WNIT. That’s a positive step for Mike Neighbors in his second year with the program, but to come so close to the big dance and having the hopes shut down in such an odd way has to be agonizing for them. Especially since the Hogs won at Tennessee earlier in the season.