Know Your Opponents: Waco Subregional

By Bobby Hundley

California (CalBears.com)
Location: Berkeley, Calif.
Rankings: No. 42 RPI, NR AP
Record: 19-12, 9-9 Pac-12
Bid: At-large (Lost to Stanford 72-54 in the Pac-12 quarterfinals)
Carolina Series History (Last Meeting): Carolina leads 2-1 (UNC 70, Cal 65, Dec. 30, 1999, Carmichael Auditorium)

All-America center Kristine Anigwe leads the way for a Cal team that enters the NCAA tournament after a similar season to Carolina. Both squads played challenging non-conference schedules ahead of a .500 finish in league play. The ACC and Pac-12 were the top two conferences in terms of RPI, and both the Tar Heels and the Golden Bears had a signature win over an elite program to buoy their respective résumés. For Cal, it was a buzzer-beating win over Stanford in Berkeley on Jan. 31.

Head coach Lindsay Gottlieb has turned Cal into a consistent winner, and Saturday will mark her seventh NCAA appearance in eight seasons at the helm, a stretch that includes a run to the Final Four in 2013. Anigwe has been one of the most dominant players in college basketball this year, averaging 22.9 points and an eye-popping 16.3 rebounds per game. That latter total is tops in the country, and she also has a nation-leading 31 double-doubles to her name.

Baylor (BaylorBears.com)
Location: Waco, Texas
Rankings: No. 2 RPI, No. 1 AP
Record: 31-1, 18-0 Big 12
Bid: Automatic (Beat Iowa State 67-49 in the Big 12 final)
Carolina Series History (Last Meeting): Baylor leads 1-0 (Baylor 72, UNC 63, March 28, 2005, Tempe, Ariz.)

The top-seeded Bears have run roughshod over the Big 12 this season, rolling to a perfect 18-0 record and then winning three conference tournament games by an average of 28 points per game. The 18-point win over Iowa State in the Big 12 final completed a sweep of the Cyclones, and Kim Mulkey's club also has non-conference wins over UConn in Waco and at South Carolina. Baylor's lone loss was a five-point setback at Stanford in December.

The Bears rank in the top 10 nationally in both offensive and defensive points per possession, and they've outscored opponents by 26 points per contest. All-America center Kalani Brown leads four players in double figures and makes 62 percent of her field goals and almost 82 percent of her free throws.

The only prior meeting between Baylor and Carolina came in the 2005 Elite Eight, when the Bears knocked off UNC en route to their first national title. Mulkey, who is in her 19th season in Waco, was an assistant at Louisiana Tech when the Tar Heels won their NCAA title in 1994.

Abilene Christian (ACUSports.com)
Location: Ablilene, Texas
Rankings: No. 124 RPI, NR AP
Record: 23-9, 13-5 Southland
Bid: Automatic (Beat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 69-68 in the Southland final)
Carolina Series History (Last Meeting): Would be first meeting

In just its second season of D-I postseason eligibility, Abilene Christian is in the NCAA tournament for the first time in 2019. The Wildcats led Texas A&M-Corpus Christi by as many as 24 points in the second half of the Southland tournament final and hung on for a 69-68 win to punch their ticket.

Head coach Julie Goodenough, who faced Carolina during her six-year stint at Charleston Southern, guided the Wildcats through the transition from D-II to D-I. The 2016 team was 26-4 and dominated the Southland, but last season marked the first time ACU was eligible for the postseason. Junior guard Breanna Wright scores 14.0 points per game to lead four Wildcats in double figures.

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