4 Louisiana teams headed to men’s, women’s NCAA March Madness

March Madness will pass through Louisiana and take teams from the Bayou State to Florida, California and the Midwest, shining the spotlight on basketball played in south Louisiana.

The lone men’s representative in the field of 68 is the Sun Belt champion Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns. The Cajuns drew a No. 13 seed in the East Region and will meet fourth-seeded Tennessee Thursday at 8:40 p.m. CDT in Orlando. The game will be televised by CBS.

If Bob Marlin’s team can spring the upset, it would play either Duke or Oral Roberts in the second round on Saturday.

Three women’s teams from Louisiana have made it to the “Big Dance,” led by LSU, which will host first- and second-round games at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

The Tigers got a No. 3 seed and will face 14th seed Hawaii in the first round Friday. The other first-round matchup in Baton Rouge matches No. 6 seed Michigan and 11th-seeded UNLV.

Southeastern Louisiana, the Southland Conference tournament champ, heads to Iowa City, Iowa, to meet the nation’s most prolific scorer, Caitlin Clark of Iowa in a 2-15 opening round matchup on Friday.

The first team from Louisiana to tip off will be SWAC tournament champion Southern, which faces Sacred Heart in a women’s First Four game Wednesday at 8 p.m. CDT in Stanford, California. The Southern-Sacred Heart gets the top-seeded Cardinal in a first-round game on Friday.

The Women’s NIT 64-team field was announced Sunday night and it includes Tulane and Louisiana Tech. While the bracket won’t be announced until Monday, Tulane is a candidate to host a first-round game as it has done in previous years.

Other brackets for postseason tournaments will be released later Sunday and Monday.