MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The Green Bay women's basketball team is playing in its 21st NCAA March Madness Tournament, and its third consecutive trip to the Big Dance! The No. 13-seeded Phoenix will be taking on the No. 4-seeded Minnesota Golden Gophers at 5 p.m. CST on Friday, March 20, at Williams Arena in Minneapolis. The first-round game will be aired nationally on ESPNU.
 
GAMEDAY INFORMATION
(13) Green Bay Phoenix (25-8, 17-3 HL) vs (4) Minnesota Golden Gophers (22-8, 13-5 B1G)
Friday, March 20, 2026
5:00 PM
Follow the action: Watch (ESPNU) | Live Stats | Tickets | NCAA Bracket
 
ABOUT THE GOLDEN GOPHERS
The No. 4 seed Golden Gophers have a 22-8 record and a 13-5 record in a stacked Big Ten conference under third-year head coach and native of West Bend, Wisconsin, Dawn Plitzuweit. Every player in the Minnesota starting five averages double-digit scoring, led by sophomore guard Tori McKinney's 13.1 points per game. She also leads Minnesota with 2.0 steals per game. Close behind her is North Prairie, Wisconsin native Grace Grocholski, who puts up 12.7 points and 5.0 boards per game in a team-high 33.4 minutes for the Gophers. Junior Mara Braun averages 11.5 points per game while leading the Gophers with 20 blocks this season. Rounding out the starting five is a pair of seniors, Minnesota's tallest player, 6-foot-5 Sophie Hart, who averages 10.9 points per game, and is shooting 55.2% from the floor. Hart's 6.6 rebounds per game trail only her fellow senior Amaya Battle, who leads the Golden Gophers at 7.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game, while adding 10.9 points per game.
 
The Golden Gophers are top-40 in the country in scoring offense and defense, scoring 74.9 points per game while allowing 57.9 to their opponents. Their 17.0 scoring margin is the 18th-best mark in the country. Minnesota takes care of the ball at an elite level. Committing just 10.9 turnovers per game, the fourth-fewest in the country. The team also ranks fourth in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio, at 1.51.
 
ABOUT THE MATCHUP
Green Bay is 6-9 against the Golden Gophers in the all-time series dating back to 1991. The two teams have played each other in the NCAA Tournament once before, on March 16, 2018, in which the Golden Gophers overcame a 13-point deficit in the second half to win 89-77 in Eugene, Ore. GB is also 0-2 against Minnesota in the WNIT, falling in 2014 and 2022. In their last ten meetings, the Phoenix and Gophers are each 5-5 against one another. This will be the first time the Phoenix will play in the NCAA Tournament in the state of Minnesota, and the fifth time playing in the Midwest.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Green Bay women's basketball team became the back-to-back-to-back Horizon League Tournament Champions after taking down Youngstown State 57-49 last Tuesday afternoon at Corteva Coliseum in Indianapolis, Ind.
 
Green Bay is now a 19-time Horizon League Tournament Champion and will make its 21st NCAA Tournament appearance on Friday.
 
The Phoenix had two players score in double figures, led by the Horizon League Championships MVP, Jenna Guyer, who finished with 21 points and two blocks. Maddy Skorupski, who was also named to the Horizon League All-Tournament Team, tacked on 13 points, six rebounds, and five steals. Kamy Peppler stuffed the stat sheet as well, adding five points, six rebounds, eight assists, and four steals.
 
HORIZON LEAGUE AWARDS
The Horizon League announced the #HLWBB All-League Awards on March 2. Green Bay headlined the awards with the Player of the Year in Jenna Guyer and the Coach of the Year in Kayla Karius. In addition to her Player of the Year award, Guyer also secured First Team and All-Defensive Team honors. Maddy Skorupski was named All-League Second Team, Meghan Schultz was named All-League Third Team, and Kamy Peppler was a Sportsmanship Award Finalist.
 
HORIZON LEAGUE CHAMPIONS
For the second-straight season, the Phoenix won the Horizon League Regular Season AND Tournament Championship. Green Bay has also won the regular-season title three out of the last four years, and the tournament title in the last three seasons.
 
20+ WINS
Green Bay has crossed the 20+ win threshold for the fourth consecutive season. The Phoenix has had 20+ wins 36 times and is currently in its 53rd season.
 
NCAA TOURNAMENT APPEARANCES
Green Bay is in some elite company of teams that have 20+ NCAA Tournament Appearances in the past 30 years. Below is a complete list of teams:
 
UConn
Tennessee
Notre Dame
Stanford
Texas
Duke
Louisville
Baylor
LSU
North Carolina
Georgia
Iowa State
Maryland
Iowa
Purdue
NC State
Vanderbilt
Michigan St.
Florida St.
DePaul
Green Bay
 
GREEN BAY IN THE BIG DANCE
The Phoenix holds an all-time March Madness record of 6-20, advancing to the second round in 2003, 2007, 2010, 2011, and 2012, while making it all the way to the Sweet Sixteen in 2011. Green Bay's last victory in the NCAA Tournament came in 2012 against No. 10 Iowa State by a score of 71-57. The Phoenix is 0-8 in the Big Dance since, most recently falling 81-67 to No. 5-seeded Alabama in last year's 2025 tournament.
 
NATIONALLY SIGNIFICANT
Green Bay is ranked in the top 50 nationally in multiple categories. The Phoenix is 13th per game in assist/turnover ratio (1.34), 17th in assists per game (17.3), 31st in fewest turnovers per game (12.9), 35th in defensive rebounds per game (28.0), 36th in field goal percentage allowed (37.2 percent), 46th in winning percentage (75.8 percent), 47th in scoring defense (58.6), and 50th in field goal percentage (44.5 percent).
 
TRIPLE DOUBLE
Former Oakland standout and one of two Horizon League All-League players left in the league from a season ago, Maddy Skorupski, became the second player in program history to record a triple-double on March 4 vs. Detroit Mercy. The only triple-double in Green Bay women's basketball history before Wednesday was on Feb. 28, 2004, when Mary Kulenkamp had 10 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists vs. UIC. Skorupski finished with 12 points, ten boards, and ten assists to complete the historic stat line. Skorupski is third on the team in points per game at 11.0, second in assists, averaging 4.5 (second most in the HL, .1 assists per game behind Kamy Peppler), and leads GB with 2.2 steals per game. She scored her 1,000th career point against RMU on Feb. 5. Skorupski was named All-League Second Team for the second time in her career and the All-Tournament team last week.
 
MEG-NIFICENT MEGHAN
Redshirt sophomore Meghan Schultz has had a breakout season for head coach Kayla Karius, sitting at second on the team in scoring at 12.5 points to go with 4.4 rebounds per game. Schultz has scored 20+ points six times this season. Schultz was named to the All-League Third Team in the Horizon League.
 
MVP MVP MVP
Redshirt-Senior forward Jenna Guyer returned to the Phoenix lineup on Nov. 22 after an injury kept her out of the first five games of the season. In 28 games since then, Guyer has scored in double figures 25 times, including 21 of the last 22 games. Guyer is first on the team, averaging 15.1 points per game, and secured her career-high in points with 23 on Senior Day vs Milwaukee. Guyer was named the Horizon League Tournament MVP, as well as to the All-Tournament team, after her 21-point performance on 7-of-11 shooting in the championship against Youngstown State helped Green Bay cut the nets down in Indianapolis last Monday. Guyer is the first player in a Phoenix uniform to be named Player of the Year and tournament MVP in the same season since Julie Wojta in the 2012 season.
 
Prior to this season, Guyer had never started a game for the Phoenix, often featuring in a role off the bench.
 
WINNING WITH KARIUS
Head Coach Kayla Karius earned her 90th career win in her fourth season as an NCAA Division I head coach with a 73-48 win against Purdue Fort Wayne in the Horizon League Semifinals on March 9, 2026.
 
Fastest to 25 wins - Green Bay HC history since becoming a Division I program in 1987 Karius hit 50 wins at Green Bay on Feb. 21 vs Milwaukee**

1. Matt Bollant - 29 games (2007-08)
2. Kayla Karius - 30 games (2024-25)
3. Carol Hammerle - 33 games (1987-88)
4. Kevin Borseth - 41 games (1998-99)

 
COACH OF THE YEAR KAYLA
After winning the Horizon League and making the NCAA Tournament in her first season as the Phoenix Head Coach, Kayla Karius did the same in year two with an overhauled roster. Karius was named the Horizon League's Coach of the Year while guiding the Phoenix to a regular-season and tournament championship for the second straight season.
 
Karius and her staff achieved the feat despite graduating seven seniors and 85.2% of its scoring from 2024-25. The 2025-26 Phoenix features eight newcomers, consisting of six transfers and two true freshmen. After two seasons as the head coach at South Dakota and her seasons with the Phoenix, Karius holds an all-time record of 91-42.
 
Karius is also the only person in Horizon League Women's Basketball history to win a Player of the Year and Coach of the Year award.

One of the first stops of Karius' coaching career was under Dawn Plitzuweit at South Dakota. After Karius finished her playing days in 2015, she joined Sioux Falls as an assistant coach in 2015-16, before joining Coach Plitzuweit as an assistant coach at South Dakota from 2016-18. In the pair's two years together at South Dakota, the Coyotes went 52-16, winning the Summit League regular season title in 2017-18.
 
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