The West Virginia Mountaineers are headed to the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament as a No. 4 seed, which means they will also be one of 16 host sites for the opening weekend of play during the event.
It marks the first time in 34 years that WVU women's basketball will host a game in the NCAA Tournament, and it comes with a major advantage for the Mountaineers: perhaps even more so than most teams who earned a chance to host, as WVU is 44-5 on their home floor during the three seasons Mark Kellogg has led the team.
But WVU will also be counting on a massive crowd. Kellogg and WVU AD Wren Baker have been calling for a sellout crowd, and it seems likely that it's going to happen. Ticket sales opened on Monday morning at 10 AM ET, and Baker tweeted not long after the stunning sales numbers – over 11,000 tickets sold in the first hour.
Less than an hour in and we've crossed 11,000 tickets sold for Saturday session. Let's GO! Operation SELLOUT Hope Coliseum! @3Guys__ @WVUSports https://t.co/jTCrUNohyB
— Wren Baker (@wrenbaker) March 16, 2026
Following that news, sales have since been halted for the first-round and all-session tickets, with limited quantities remaining for the second round game. 1,500 students will also be admitted to the games in both round free of charge on a first come, first serve basis.
This means the Mountaineers are likely to set a new attendance record for the women's program at Hope Coliseum, with the current record standing at 13,477 during a 2013 visit from Baylor, then led by head coach Kim Mulkey and standout star Brittney Griner. The all-time attendance record is held by the men's basketball team who welcomed 16,704 fans in 1982 for a Backyard Brawl showdown.
"We would love to pack this place," Kellogg said. "If we can get 14,000 people in here, that would be a huge reward, and we will feed off it. We feed off the energy of our passionate fan base. We play that way. I think it's great for women's college basketball for this area, for our state, and for all of the little kids who have grown up kind of admiring this."
"It's been 30-whatever years since we've had (an NCAA Tournament) game in here, so it doesn't happen very often. We might as well make it the best we can."