This article was originally published on March 26, but due to technical difficulties has been republished.
They’re dancing and advancing. The Miami Hurricanes are elite.
March 26 will be the first time in program history that Miami women’s basketball will play in the Elite Eight. At 7 p.m., the ninth-seeded ‘Canes will face off against third-seeded LSU at the Bon Secours Arena for a spot in the Final Four in Dallas next weekend.
If Miami beats LSU and advances to the final four, it will be the first team in history to make it that far in the tournament as a ninth-seeded team.
This thought is far from the minds of the Hurricanes, as they are focusing on “intensity without tension,” moving forward, as put by a friend of ‘Canes head coach Katie Meier.
She is confident going into the evening: “Moving forward, which we’re going to do, we’re going to do it really quickly and we’re going to do it really well,” she said.
Between the ‘Canes and Tigers, women’s basketball made headlines after the Sweet Sixteen: Lil Wayne FaceTimed the Cavinder twins.
While LSU was working for their win over two-seed Utah, the Grammy-award-winning rapper FaceTimed the Cavinder twins to wish them and the ‘Canes congratulations on their historic win.
LSU sophomore forward Angel Reece was not happy when she heard this news, given the rapper is a New Orleans native.
“I’m on him because he’s from NOLA and he called them before he called us … So Lil Tunechi, you better come pull up tomorrow,” she joked.
Haley Cavinder also said, “I think he likes women’s basketball and that’s a win for women’s basketball …hopefully he comes to the game if he likes Angel Reese and our team.”
As for LSU’s head coach, Kim Mulkey, the internet went crazy over her Sweet Sixteen outfit: an ostrich feather fringed blazer with bright white pants and sparkly pink pumps.
“I don’t know what Kim is going to wear, but I’m going to wear overalls … put it out there,” Katie Meier said about her outfit for the Elite Eight.
The coaches have gone up against each other before, but not in a game between Miami and LSU. Meier has also watched Mulkey as a fan.
“I’m not trying to give her age away, but I literally watched her in the Final Four in my house and went and got a Louisiana Tech little jacket thing and wore it around because I thought she was really cool.”
Mulkey has won the National Championship three times before, all as the head coach at Baylor University.
“I feel sorry for the referees because they’ve got two coaches that are going to pour into it a little bit on the sideline,” Meier said.
Lola Pendande, Haley Cavinder, Destiny Harden and Ja’Leah Williams all spoke to the media on the day between the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight and spoke about their strategies moving forward.
“We’d know how to handle the situation…we always bring it through no matter what, as long as we’re together and have each other’s backs,” Williams said.
The team sounds steady and ready for anything that comes their way.