After earning a No. 4 seed, Texas women will open NCAA Tournament against East Carolina

If the Texas Longhorns want to get to Dallas later this month, they'll have to go through Austin and Seattle.

Texas learned its seed and draw for the NCAA Tournament on Sunday. The Longhorns were awarded a No. 4 seed in the 68-team field.

On Saturday, Texas will host a first-round game against No. 13 East Carolina (23-9). That game is set to tip off at 9 p.m. Fifth-seeded Louisville (23-11) and No. 12 Drake (22-9) also battle at Moody Center on Saturday at 6:30 p.m., and the winners of those games will meet in a second-round showdown on Monday.

In its first season at Moody, Texas has posted a 14-2 record in its home games. When asked about hosting postseason games, UT coach Vic Schaefer said, "It's going to be an exciting time."

"I hope we'll have 10,000 in there for both nights," Schaefer said. "To have the NCAA Tournament on your home floor? Man, what an opportunity. That's where I'm at with our group and this team. It will be an exciting week."

If it survives the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament, Texas will advance to one of the two Seattle-hosted regionals. Stanford (28-5), Iowa (26-6) and Duke (25-6) are the top seeds in UT's region.

This season, the Final Four is being held at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Texas last reached the Final Four in 2003, but the Longhorns have made an Elite Eight appearance in each of the past two seasons.

Texas enters the NCAA Tournament with a 25-9 record. The Longhorns shared the Big 12's regular-season championship, but they were beaten by Iowa State in their conference tournament's championship game Sunday.

"This game is already over," UT guard Rori Harmon said afterward. "The NCAA Tournament is next, and that's what we have to focus around."

The champions of the American Athletic Conference, East Carolina is in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2007. East Carolina was picked to finish 11th in the 11-team AAC this season, but the Pirates went 3-0 at the conference tournament after a third-place finish in the regular-season standings.

Texas and East Carolina have never played before.

The Longhorns do have a little more familiarity with the other two teams that are coming to Austin this week. Louisville beat Texas in November at a tournament that was held in the Bahamas. Drake visited Texas at the Erwin Center during the 2020-21 season.

Saturday's game

(13) East Carolina at (4) Texas, Moody Center, 9 p.m., ESPN, 105.3

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas learns seed, first-round opponent for NCAA basketball tournament