We don’t have to wait much longer, NCAA Division II basketball fans.

NCAA Tournament time is officially here, and as D-III’s versions of the Big Dance tip off this week, D-II joins in the fun next week as the conference tournaments have finally wrapped up and bids to the 64-team bracket are officially set in stone.

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For those unaware, D-II does its tournaments a little differently than its D-I and D-III counterparts with winners of eight geographically-based Regionals qualifying for the Elite Eight, which is to be held this year from March 24-28 at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse in Pittsburgh.

That makes for a tournament in which essentially every game in the bracket is a dogfight with little margin for error, and in line with that expected chaos, FloCollege’s picks to make it to the Elite Eight aren’t all No. 1 teams.

Throw in some strong sleepers with some serious firepower mixing in with the nation’s top teams, and we should have a loaded next few weeks of D-II hoops on our hands. 

Here’s a look at some of my predictions on who will take charge in all eight women’s regions:

Atlantic Region: Gannon

It was anyone’s guess as to who would come out on top in the Atlantic as five different teams had either four or five losses in the final regional rankings released by the NCAA before the national tourney field is revealed. 

That leads us to lean toward familiarity as Gannon, the defending Atlantic Region champion with a chip on its shoulder, aims to make it back to the Elite Eight and have the ending it thinks it should've had last year. The Golden Knights were exceptional in 2023-24, winning 35 games and entering the Elite Eight as the No. 1 seed before No. 8 Cal State San Marcos crushed Gannon’s dreams in overtime in the national quarterfinals. 

Last year’s national player of the year, Samantha Pirosko, isn’t around anymore to try and take the Golden Knights to the summit, but plenty of other talent has stepped up in her absence. Guards Bri Claxon, Kate Ratliff and Maddy Wheatley have emerged to forge the Golden Knights forward as the team’s top three scorers, with Gannon toppling current Atlantic No. 1 Seton Hill on three different occasions this season already. 

Perhaps the returners from Gannon’s heartbreak of an ending to last year will get to have their dream season, except a year later than planned.

Central Region: Concordia-St. Paul

Already in the NCAA Tournament field for certain, the Golden Bears pulled off the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference double as they won the regular-season title before capturing the NSIC Tournament championship Tuesday, and though the Central is a stacked region that also features the defending national champion (Minnesota State), CSP has got the juice to win the Regional — and then some in Pittsburgh, should it make it there. 

Having already hit a school record for wins (29), the Bears are playing with house money at this point as the First Team All-NSIC duo of Lydia Haack (16.6 points per game) and NSIC Defensive Player of the Year Lindsey Becher (13.3 points, 7.6 rebounds, 3.0 blocks per game) is one of D-II’s best, with Haack especially being a well-rounded stat-sheet stuffer with averages of 4.9 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game to go along with her team scoring lead.

 Those two and the rest of the Golden Bears appear to be hitting their groove at the right time, too: CSP’s 92 points it dropped on Minnesota State in the NSIC title game were the most that the Bears have scored on an opponent this season, not counting exhibitions.

East Region: Bentley

The heavy favorite to make it to Pittsburgh out of the East Region, an upset loss to Adelphi early in the Northeast-10 Conference schedule in mid-November is Bentley’s only blemish to date as the Falcons have otherwise tore through everyone else in front of them, tying their program record for regular-season wins with 27 — equal with three other seasons in which the program was coached by the legendary Barbara Stevens — as they romped to the NE10 title. 

Shooting the cover off of the ball is Bentley’s specialty as they rank third in D-II (as of Thursday) with a team 38% 3-point percentage, with sophomore guard Niya Morgen being the national leader in percentage of triples hit as she’s knocked down nearly half of her 3s this season (65 for 132, 49.2%) all while other big contributors like Amanda Kabantu (28 for 66, 42.4%) are also capable shooters from deep. 

Four Falcons average double figures in scoring as Maggie Whitmore (12.7 points per game) and Kylie DuCharme (10.9) are among them, doubling as Bentley’s two All-NE10 first team selections as each is a stat sheet stuffer who can take the Falcons to victory on any given night.

Midwest Region: Grand Valley State

Ashland, Union (Tennessee) and Montana State Billings — all serious threats to make it to the Elite Eight themselves — were among the teams that the Lakers toppled before they even got to the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference slate, where they went on to cruise to the regular-season title and wrapped up play before the GLIAC Tournament with just one D-II loss, the other of which came to Ohio State in Columbus. 

If that’s not a national championship contender-worthy resume, we don’t know what is. 

Maybe the best team that Grand Valley State has had since current Minnesota coach Dawn Plitzuweit led the Lakers to a national title in 2006, that’s not something that’s said lightly as coach Mike Williams has steered GVSU to a 31-3 overall record in each of the past three seasons. This year’s Lakers squad, however, is especially nasty; they’ve often gone 12-deep on the bench while scoring 84.6 points per game as the Bisballe sisters, Rylie (the reigning GLIAC Player of the Year) and MacKenzie (the sixth-woman who averages 10.1 points per game, only behind Rylie on the team), run the show, and the roster as a whole has a positive turnover margin of nearly 10 (9.75 as of Wednesday).

South Region: Texas Woman’s

The nation’s No. 1-ranked team in the most recent WBCA Coaches Poll released this week, Texas Woman’s was one win away from a national championship last season but lost to Minnesota State in the title game. 

This time around, the Pioneers are more than well-equipped to get the job done and capture their first national title ever. Texas Tyler (who TWU eventually beat in the rematch in its regular-season finale) has been the only team this year able to take down the Lone Star Conference champion. Going into their conference tournament opener Thursday against UT Permian Basin, the Pioneers were ranked fourth in D-II in scoring defense (50.7 points allowed per game) and eighth in opposing field goal percentage (34.3%), while All-LSC First Team picks Ashley Ingram (15.3 points, 9.2 rebounds per game) and Scout Huffman (11.4 points per game, 59.6% field goal percentage) lead the way offensively. Watch for LSC Sixth Woman of the Year Averee Kleinhans (9.2 points per game) to be a difference maker in the South Regional.

South Central Region: Union (Tennessee)

If you see Union matched up with your team this postseason, get ready to prepare for a track meet. 

Only defending national champion Minnesota State currently averages more points per game than the Bulldogs (85.0) as their lethal offense paced them to the Gulf South Conference regular-season crown with three games to spare. 

GSC Coach of the Year Mark Campbell’s program also makes almost two more 3-pointers per game on average (11.8) than its closest competitor in D-II with Bethany Dillard being Union’s top option from deep, ranking third nationally with 86 triples made as of Thursday night. 

The most impressive part about the Bulldogs’ numbers, however, is that they’ve obtained those despite only having three players average over 20 minutes per night, with Campbell opting to keep players fresh with frequent substitutes as Union attacks teams with a frenetic pace for 40 minutes. That strategy has worked wonders for breakout sophomore and leading scorer Olivia Lee, a recently-named First Team All-GSC pick who leads the way on the team at 13.1 points per game despite only playing 21.8 minutes per game.

Southeast Region: North Georgia

It was a toil back and forth to choose between the Southeast’s current top-two teams, North Georgia and Coker, but we’re going with the Peach Belt Conference regular-season champs to be the region’s representative in the Steel City. 

The Nighthawks are proven, having picked up big nonconference wins against Nova Southeastern and Carson-Newman, and have veteran experience and chemistry as the roster features seven upperclassmen/graduate students and 10 of 11 players who are Georgia natives, with many of those same names having contributed to UNG’s run to the national semifinals in 2022. 

One of those names, graduate guard Caroline Martin — a former All-American who is back with a vengeance after missing the entirety of the 2023-24 season due to injury — is making up for lost time by having a career year to date with 17.2 points per game averaged and career-best marks in field goal percentage (44.2%), 3-point percentage (37.6%), steals (56) and more. She rejoined a team that returned 88.8% of its scoring from 2023-24, with supporting cast members like Emily Trushel (14.4 points per game) ensuring that opponents can’t just hone in on trying to contain Martin.

West Region: Alaska Anchorage

With all due respect to current regional top seed Cal State Dominguez Hills, which has been phenomenal all year as it closed the regular season with a gaudy 29-1 record and a California Collegiate Athletic Association regular-season title, the West Region is bound to have a little bit of Mayhem. 

The Seawolves’ trademark Amoeba-inspired defense under coach Ryan McCarthy is devastating when it’s at its best, and it took UAA to a Great Northwest Athletic Conference regular-season championship over other legitimate Elite Eight threats in Montana State Billings and Central Washington. 

Only two teams in D-II average more steals per game (as of Thursday) than the Seawolves’ 17.2 — with defensive specialist Emilia Long leading all players nationally with 4.3 swipes per night — and UAA ranks third in scoring defense (50.1 points per game allowed), too. 

Throw in a 16-point exhibition win earlier in the season against D-I Vermont, which finished second in the America East Conference, and an offense that doesn’t get enough credit (80.5 points per game, eighth nationally), and this UAA team might be even scarier than the one that made the national title game in 2016.

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