LOUISVILLE, Ky. — As the NCAA Tournament’s first weekend continues, two exciting matchups await fans in Louisville: No. 3 seed Louisville vs. No. 14 seed Vermont at 12 p.m. ET, and No. 6 seed Alabama vs. No. 11 seed Rhode Island at 2:30 p.m. ET.
Here’s what to know about each team:
No. 3 seed Louisville
After traveling to TCU last season, Louisville is excited to host and play in front of its fans.
The Cardinals and the Catamounts both enter the game with a 27-7 record, but junior forward Elif Istanbulluoglu sees their records going into Saturday afternoon as 0-0, providing the team with a new opportunity.
Head coach Jeff Walz sees this weekend as a two-game tournament, needing to win the first game to get to the second. He’s not looking past Vermont and knows if you’ve made the NCAA Tournament, you’re a good team.
Louisville has lost five games at home this season, with only one being decided by more than 3 points — a 10-point loss to Kentucky on Nov. 22, 2025. It’s not something Walz is worried about as they haven’t been blown out at home, but he knows his team needs to finish games. The team lost in overtime in the ACC championship game to Duke after being up four with a minute to go in regulation. The team is staying in a hotel and going through their routines like they would at the ACC Tournament.
“It’s more so just making sure we can keep ‘em focused,” Walz said. “We know exactly what’s going on. We’re kinda controlling what they’re doing to make sure any time we wanna watch film, we’re gonna watch film, we’re gonna have team meetings, we’re gonna make sure we go over personnel.”
Preparation for the NCAA Tournament has been the same as the regular season for the Cardinals.
“We have the [same] mindset … the whole season,” Istanbulluoglu said. “I mean, obviously NCAA’s a big tournament, but I feel like Coach Walz has emphasized every single game matters the whole season.”
Junior guard/forward Skylar Jones is no longer on the roster. She averaged 8.4 points, 2.9 rebounds, 1.0 assists and 1.5 steals per game and played in Louisville’s first 34 games this season, starting one.
No. 14 seed Vermont
For the third time in four years, Vermont is in the NCAA Tournament. This season, the Catamounts are led by senior guard Keira Hanson, senior center Nikola Priede and redshirt senior guard Jadyn Weltz, who all average at least 11 points per game.
Hanson and Priede have been a part of each of those three NCAA Tournament teams, but it is the first one for Weltz, who transferred from Binghamton prior to the start of the 2025-26 season.
During head coach Alisa Kresge’s recent NCAA Tournament experiences, she’s learned that the team needs to be themselves and prepare for the game against Louisville like they have every other game this season.
“The last thing we wanna do is rock the boat going into any game, especially at this level,” Kresge said. “And so just staying consistent to who we are, staying focused on the task at hand, has been a big thing about our players. But really that, being us is really important.”
She highlighted that rebounds, handling the Cardinals’ pressure, making shots and slowing down Louisville’s offense will be crucial for her team.
Louisville averages 71.7 possessions for each team per 40 minutes, while Vermont averages 62.8, 361st in Division 1. The Catamounts average 10.6 turnovers per game, second-fewest in Division I, and force 14.5 turnovers per game, while the Cardinals commit 13.4 turnovers per game.
To prepare for their matchup against Louisville, the players are pulling from all of their games this season, but especially UMBC. Priede believes their experience playing against UMBC has helped them because of the Retrievers’ athleticism, quickness, aggressiveness, and the fact that they run in transition.
Weltz is grateful for their schedule, in and outside of the America East conference.
“We’ve played some length, we’ve played some athletic ability and we’ve played some physicality,” Weltz said. “So I think just taking what worked well against those teams and just bringing it forward with us.”
No. 6 seed Alabama
For the fifth time in six seasons, the Crimson Tide (23-10) is in the NCAA Tournament and they are taking on a Rhode Island (28-4) team that hasn’t been since 1996.
Redshirt senior guard Jessica Timmons knows that Rhode Island is a potent defensive team that allows 53.8 points per game. She believes that to beat them, Alabama will need to play their game — play fast-paced, get open threes, run in transition and get rebounds, as well as play well on the defensive end to get a win.
Senior guard Karly Weathers noted that both teams know how to win, so it’s going to come down to who does more on Saturday.
“I think that they’re a really great team. They’re very balanced. They’re a team that doesn’t beat themselves. They take care of the little things,” Weathers said. “And so we have to be the team [Saturday] that takes care of more little things. And as Coach Curry always says, we have to make our runs just a little bit longer than theirs.”
Head coach Kristy Curry knows that the Rams like to set the pace, and in order to play the style of play they want to, they will need to get stops. Rhode Island averages 65.7 possessions for each team per 40 minutes, while Alabama averages 69.6.
Rhode Island averages 11.4 turnovers per game, seventh in Division I, and Alabama knows that it’s going to be important to make the Rams as uncomfortable as possible.
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Leading up to the NCAA Tournament, Alabama’s practices have had an emphasis on communication and detail.
“Playing in March is basically one possession,” Timmons said. “Honing in on our detail, doing what we do best, but I think one thing that we emphasize is having bodies in the paint, touching somebody, making sure we box out, rebound, and kinda getting the shot [we] want.”
No. 11 seed Rhode Island
In February, senior guard Brooklyn Gray told The IX Basketball that one of the team’s goals was to go to the NCAA Tournament and win a game.
“I just wanna go out with a bang, honestly. And I definitely think that we have the capability to do so. We have the drive,” Gray said. “We have the want. We have the urgency … we ready for the moment. So I feel like when it comes, we gonna be able to make some big things happen and maybe surprise a lotta people.”
Just one player on the roster has experienced March Madness before: graduate student guard Ta’Viyanna Habib, who played in it for George Mason last season. The biggest focus for head coach Tammi Reiss and her staff has been mentally preparing the team to stay focused on the fact that they are here to play and win a game.
Reiss’ overarching key to the game is simple: “We gotta do us. We’re focused on us.”
She wants the team to have 8-10 turnovers because it’s important for the team to get shots and score; execute in transition on both sides of the ball; defend the three — Alabama makes 36.0% of its 3-pointers, 18th in Division I — and rebound and box out.
“Those are the four key points that pretty much all year, when we do each one of those four successfully, we’ve been in games and we’ve been able to win games,” Reiss said. “So it’s no different. Now you have to execute at a whole ‘nother level against this caliber of team and … on this stage.”
Rhode Island has lost the first quarter in the last two games, and after the Atlantic 10 championship win, Gray said that they wanted to work on having a good first half in the practices leading up to the NCAA Tournament.
Sophomore center Albina Syla said that the team has been concentrating on starting practice with lots of energy and intensity because they like to practice the way they play.
Reiss noted that while you can try to prepare for how you’ll start games, it’s hard to prepare for a stage like an NCAA Tournament game because there’s nothing like it.
“When those cameras come and the lights turn on and you got ‘Bama looking you straight in the eye, they’re gonna have to start really well and really disciplined and solid. So what we’ve prepared, to the best of our ability, is starting practice where all our key points — limit turnovers. Are we hitting and boxing out? Are we doing everything we need to do those first four minutes? By that first media timeout, can we execute our game plan?
“So we’ve tried to replicate that every day in practice to the best of our ability. And that’s all you can do. Now, how they react … their mental psyche once that game starts — some of these kids are gonna have jitters. It’s the natural way. But how quickly can we settle down and be ready to fight and execute our game plan? [The] first four minutes are key. They really are.”
Syla grew up in Finland and didn’t watch a lot of March Madness, but remembers in her early teenage years seeing clips from the tournament of improbable shots.
“I was, like, I would love to play in one of those games one day,” Syla said. “And I feel like being here … it’s really crazy. And, yeah, I’m really excited. I’ve heard a lot about March Madness and what it’s like, so I’m really excited to experience it.”
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