Women’s NCAA tournament 2022 – How Creighton reached the Elite Eight, and which teams will join the Bluejays?

The Creighton Bluejays aren’t done making history in March Madness. The No. 10 seed in the Greensboro Regional, Creighton upset the third-seeded Iowa State Cyclones 76-68 to advance to its first Elite Eight. The Bluejays became just the fourth double-digit seed in women’s NCAA tournament history to reach the regional semifinals, and the first since 2017.

Creighton’s win also marked the ninth victory by a double-digit seed in the 2022 women’s NCAA tournament, passing the old record set in 1991 and matched in 2018.

ESPN’s BPI gave Creighton a 6% chance to make the Elite Eight entering the tournament. And in the Women’s Tournament Challenge, the Bluejays were picked to lose in the first round in 59.9% of brackets, and tabbed to reach the Elite Eight in just 3% of brackets.

Now all eyes turn to Saturday’s regional semifinals, where the 10th-seeded South Dakota Coyotes will try to keep their own Cinderella run going. South Dakota faces 3-seed Michigan (6:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2) in the final game of the Sweet 16.

What are the keys to that game? What else are we looking to Saturday? And what are the takeaways of Aliyah Boston’s big night for the South Carolina Gamecocks and Friday’s other results? ESPN’s team of Katie Barnes, Charlie Creme, Kevin Pelton, Alexa Philippou and Mechelle Voepel weighs in on it all.

Follow this link for a complete look at Saturday’s games, which are all on the ESPN family of networks. Visit this link to check your Women’s Tournament Challenge bracket.

Creighton upended No. 3 seed Iowa State. How did the Bluejays keep their Cinderella run alive?

Voepel: Not to get all existential, but Creighton in this NCAA tournament has been the best version of itself. The Bluejays lost their regular-season finale to DePaul and their Big East quarterfinal game to Seton Hall.

Since, the Bluejays have been their 3-point-shooting, backdoor-cutting, pesky-defending, we-don’t-care-what-seed-we-are dynamic selves. Colorado got the first taste of this wicked concoction in the…