Where South Carolina women's basketball stands in NCAA tournament March Madness bracketology

COLUMBIA — After storming through the SEC tournament bracket, South Carolina women's basketball won't be waiting with bated breath on Selection Sunday to hear its name called.

The No. 1 Gamecocks (32-0) are all but guaranteed the top overall seed in March Madness, and next week begins their mission to repeat as NCAA champions after winning the title in 2022. Only four schools have ever repeated at national champions since women's basketball joined the NCAA in 1972: Southern California, Tennessee and UConn.

South Carolina's record adds another layer of historic potential. There have been just nine undefeated NCAA seasons; UConn owns six of them, including the most recent in 2016. Baylor, Texas and Tennessee have one apiece but none in the last decade.

Here's where the Gamecocks stand in the most recent bracketology:

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First- and second-round matchups

Regardless of the opponent, it would be truly shocking to see South Carolina exit in the early rounds the tournament. The Gamecocks have won 41 consecutive games on their home court and will host the first two rounds in Columbia.

Colonial Life Arena will also host a play-in game for the 16-seed that faces South Carolina in round 1. ESPN currently projects Chattanooga and Southeastern Louisiana into that matchup. In round 2, the Gamecocks will face the winner of the 8- and 9-seed matchup. ESPN places Gonzaga and Baylor into that game.

Regional round scenarios

For the first time this season, there will be just two regional sites in the tournament: one in Seattle and one in Greenville. South Carolina is almost universally projected into the Greenville 1 region. ESPN currently places North Carolina as the 4-seed and Colorado as the 5-seed in Greenville 1, which would make one of them the likely Sweet 16 matchup for the Gamecocks. However, North Carolina is a projected 5-seed by CBS and 6-seed by Just Women's Sports, so Colorado seems more probable.

UCLA, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Villanova are also being floated for those spots, and South Carolina should have fingers crossed that it doesn't draw the Bruins. UCLA is the one team all season that did not succumb to the Gamecocks' home-court advantage, leading them by 10 at halftime and ultimately falling 73-64 in Columbia in December.

If South Carolina reaches the Elite Eight as it has in five of the last eight seasons, the likely opponents based on ESPN's bracket are 2-seed Utah or 3-seed Ohio State. UConn and Notre Dame are also in the mix. The Gamecocks beat UConn 81-77 during the regular season, but the most interesting matchup might be Utah, which beat Stanford to win the Pac-12 regular-season title behind star forward Alissa Pili.

Looking ahead to Final Four weekend

After a big shakeup during conference championship weekend, there isn't much consensus about the rest of the 1-seeds behind South Carolina. CBS, ESPN and Just Women's Sports all project Indiana and Stanford as 1-seeds, but CBS has Big Ten champion Iowa as the fourth, while ESPN and Just Women's Sports have ACC champion Virginia Tech.

Of those options that could potentially meet the Gamecocks in the Final Four, Stanford is by far the biggest threat. South Carolina barely escaped the Cardinal during the regular season, forcing overtime on a buzzer-beater by Aliyah Boston and ultimately winning 76-71. While Stanford took several upsets in Pac-12 play, you can never count out Cameron Brink and Haley Jones.

Teams without elite defense struggle the most against South Carolina, and only Virginia Tech ranks inside the top 100 nationally in scoring defense at No. 30. Iowa is No. 314 out of 350 Division I programs and Indiana ranks No. 123.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: South Carolina NCAA Tournament: Where March Madness projections stand