March Madness: Brits in the 2024 Women’s NCAA Basketball Tournament

Let the Madness begin. There are four Brits involved in the 2024 Women’s NCAA Tournament with the action set to get underway this week.

Here’s a closer look at the quartet of Brits in the Big Dance:

Hannah Jump – Stanford [2]

Saturday, 23rd March vs Norfolk State [15] – 2am (UK time) – Stanford, California

Jump – and Stanford – are of course back for another appearance, but this time as the 2-seeds in the Portland Regional 4. The 2021 champions will host the first two rounds with an opening game against Norfolk State off the back of another Pac-12 regular season title, though they were beaten in the Championship game.

The sharpshooting England international had another solid year with Jump breaking the school’s all-time 3PM record with another 71 triples added, whilst averaging 10.3 points per game. Jump netted a season-high of 20 points on two occasions and started every game for the Cardinal in her final season.

Esther Little – Gonzaga [4] 

Saturday, 23rd March vs UC Irvine [13] – 11:30pm (UK time) – Spokane, Washington

Another trip to the Big Dance for Little and Gonzaga after they earned an at-large bid. Another WCC regular season title was followed by another Championship game defeat to Portland having accrued an impressive 30-3 record this season.

Little featured in all 33 games with an average of just over 14 minutes per game for the highly-ranked Bulldogs. The junior collected 76 rebounds with a season-high of eight against Portland in the season finale, whilst also swatting 11 shots. Gonzaga will host the first two rounds.

Susannah Rafiu – Columbia [12]

Thursday, 21st March vs Vanderbilt [12] – 1am (UK time) – Blacksburg, Virginia

It’s a debut appearance for Columbia as they compete at March Madness for the first time in school history. The Lions secured another Ivy League regular season title after going 13-1 in conference play including a record 11 straight victories.

Rafiu netted a season-high of 12 points in a win at Harvard in February in one of six games in double figures in scoring having finished with averages of 4.6 points and 2.8 rebounds per game in a sophomore year. It’s a First Four encounter for Columbia in a battle to claim the 12-seed spot in the Portland Regional 3.

Milly Knowles – Eastern Washington [14]

Saturday, 23rd March vs Oregon State [3] – 12am – Corvallis, Oregon

Eastern Washington are the only automatic qualifiers of the quartet attached to British players after they backed up a Big Sky regular season title with the Conference Championship. The Eagles are making their first appearance since 1987 after going 29-5 on the season with a 16-2 record in conference play.

Knowles is in a sixth – and final – year at EWU as a Grad Student having first enrolled in 2018 as a product of the Myerscough Academy. The forward opened up 2024 with a career night of 16 points and 13 rebounds against Omaha – one of two double-doubles on the season having started in all 33 appearances.

Where to Watch in the UK

Selected games will be shown live on Sky Sports.