After stymieing Penn in the Ivy League Tournament final Sunday, Princeton (24-5) was assigned a No. 12 seed Monday and a matchup with No. 5 Maryland (25-7) at PNC Arena in Raleigh, N.C. in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Tigers and Terrapins will tango Friday at noon.
Princeton returns to the Big Dance after a one-year absence, having become the first at-large Ivy to nab a NCAA bid in 2016.
But the Tigers’ last NCAA Tournament appearance as the Ivy League’s automatic bid actually came in College Park, Md., where they fell as a No. 8 seed to host No. 1 Maryland in the second round, 85-70, in 2015, Princeton’s only loss the entire season. (The Tigers, who had the only perfect record in Division I that season and attained a No. 13 national ranking, finished 31-1.)
Princeton’s only NCAA Tournament win in program history was an 80-70 victory over Wisconsin-Green Bay in 2015, prior to the defeat at Maryland.
Penn was also a No. 12 seed last season and led No. 5 Texas A&M throughout before suffering a historic late-game collapse en route to a crushing 63-61 loss.
For the second straight year, all four of the Ivy Tournament teams received postseason bids.
The Penn women earned the league’s automatic qualifier to the WNIT and will host Albany on Friday.
Harvard received an At-Large Bid to the WNIT and will travel to Fordham.
Yale earned a bid to the Women’s Basketball Invitational (WBI) and will travel to Northeastern for a Thursday 7:00 pm first round game.