STORRS, Conn. -- Two years after pushing Kim Mulkey's third-seeded LSU to the brink in the first round of the NCAA tournament, 14-seed Jackson State expects that experience will help them in their latest appearance in the Big Dance, when they face No. 3 seed UConn on Saturday at 1 p.m. ET.
Jackson State, a revitalized HBCU power under coach Tomekia Reed, was blown out by Baylor -- at the time coached by Mulkey -- 101-52 in the first round of the 2021 tournament. But the following season -- in Mulkey's first year leading LSU -- Reed's 14th-seeded Lady Tigers led by as many as 10 before ultimately losing 83-77.
"We came into that game two years ago with a lot of confidence, with a lot of composure," Reed said. "I felt like as a coach, I could have made some different decisions in terms of playing my big girl a little bit longer, when we went up 10 with three minutes to go in the game. I learned from that. My players learned to keep their composure. We kind of wanted to fight the officials on some of the calls they were making.
"So we learned overall as a group. That's what we have been talking about, things that we have to get better at going into this next game."
Added graduate student guard Miya Crump: "We have the experience as a team. The majority of the team that went to the tournament [in 2022] came back to the team. It's really nothing new. For the new players, we just have to continue to be a leader, continue to just show the confidence that we have in this program, the confidence that we have in the game plan, the confidence that we have in each other as teammates."
After that initial tournament loss to Baylor in 2021, Reed said she changed her defense and told her team, "We will not be blown out like that again," instilling in them the confidence to come out so strong against LSU the next time around.
Jackson State missed the NCAA tournament last year after falling short of the SWAC tournament title, and while they took some bumps in their nonconference slate this season -- with losses to Kansas State, Oregon State, Mississippi State, Miami and Texas -- Reed feels her players rode out the wave of figuring out chemistry and roles to ultimately become more cohesive as a group.
That's shown in conference play, as the Lady Tigers enter Saturday's contest having won 21 consecutive games, the fourth-longest active streak in Division I.
"Our preseason schedule prepared us for that, so we are just hoping it carries over into our game versus UConn," Reed said.
Both Reed and her players expressed confidence specifically in the matchup against UConn, given their length and depth against a short-handed and smaller Huskies squad.
"We most definitely do match up well with UConn. All credit to them for making it this far, as well," Crump said. "But it's just another basketball game. We've just got to go and play basketball. That's it."
A 14-seed has never beaten a 3-seed in the women's NCAA tournament, and UConn hasn't dropped a first-round game since 1993, but the Lady Tigers aren't letting those facts daunt them, either.
"I told our players, 'What stage would you want to be on than the big stage against the best in the country to ever do it,'" Reed said. "This is what we want. I would have loved to have gotten a 12-seed so I could see a different animal, but Geno it is. We're excited about it."