Women's NCAA tournament 2022 - What to watch for in the first round

After experiencing the First Four for the first time, the 2022 women's NCAA tournament first-round games open Friday on the road to Minneapolis. And one thing we'll be watching for is how strong teams look in countering the home-court advantage of the top-16 seeds.

And that's part of why we've seen so few upsets in the first round; a No. 16 seed has won just once (outside of this year's First Four), and that was in 1998 when Harvard beat top-seeded Stanford. The Nos. 14 and 15 seeds have never won a women's NCAA tournament game. The No. 13 seeds have won 10 times, most recently last year when Wright State beat Arkansas in the first round; however that game — like all the games last season — was on a neutral court.

It can get more challenging for teams to protect the home court in the second round. In 2019, the most recent year when games were on home courts, four host teams were upset in the second round. One of them was by a double-digit seed: No. 13 Missouri State over No. 3 Iowa State. And while Lady Vols alum Kellie Harper was going to be a candidate for the open Tennessee job that year anyway, guiding the Lady Bears to the Sweet 16 was a boost for her moving to Knoxville.

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Similarly, Wright State's victory last season helped coach Katrina Merriweather move on to Memphis. So while the gears are grinding on court during the tournament, the coaches' carousel and the transfer portal will be active off court, too. There is always plenty to watch and speculate about during March Madness. Here are some of the top storylines that ESPN's Mechelle Voepel, Alexa Philippou and Charlie Creme will be watching