N. Iowa-DePaul Preview (Mar 14, 2017)

DePaul and head coach Doug Bruno are tourney tested heading into Friday's NCAA Tournament first-round game against Northern Iowa.

The No. 7 seed Blue Demons (26-7) will make the program's 15th straight appearance - matching only five other programs in the nation - when they meet the 10th seed Panthers (24-8) in a first-round Oklahoma State Regional game at noon at Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville, Miss.

"It's a really difficult achievement to make it 15 times in a row," Bruno told reporters this week. "I'm really proud of our players -- especially the seniors. Jessica January, Brooke Schulte, Jacqui Grant and Meri Bennett-Swanson had the ability to overcome the absence of three starters this season."

DePaul, which reached the NCAA Sweet 16 last season, owns four straight Big East regular season titles and fell to Marquette 86-78 in last week's tourney championship. The Warriors claimed the league's automatic bid while DePaul was an at-large selection.

Bruno was named Big East coach of the year for the third time in four years. Schulte was selected as conference player of the year, most improved and scholar-athlete while averaging 20.8 points per game. Grant joined Schulte on the league's first team and was also Big East co-defensive player of the year.

Northern Iowa, an at-large selection, reached the NCAA tourney for the third time in program history and first since back-to-back appearances in 2010 and 2011.

"Northern Iowa is very well-coached and has signature wins over teams in the tournament field like Kansas State and Creighton," Bruno said. "They present a fundamentally efficient and really tough challenge both inside and on the perimeter."

Tenth-year Panthers head coach Tanya Warren wasn't certain her team would make the NCAA, then ended up with the highest seed in program history.

"I wasn't sure," she told reporters. "I thought it was a long shot. But whether our name popped or it didn't (during the NCAA pairing announcement) we would be ready to compete against whomever our opponent would be -- whether it was in the NCAA or the WNIT."

Northern Iowa was second in the Missouri Valley regular season and reached the league championship game before top seed Drake rallied to a 74-69 overtime win to claim the league's automatic NCAA bid.

The Panthers' at-large selection is the MVC's first since 2013 and only the 11th in conference history.

Northern Iowa has recorded back-to-back 20-victory seasons and has 17 or more wins in the last eight.

DePaul owns a 3-0 series advantage against Northern Iowa but the teams haven't played since a 76-72 overtime first-round WNIT win in Chicago in 2001.

Joining DePaul with NCAA Tournament appearances in the last 15 straight seasons are reigning champion Connecticut, Notre Dame, Stanford, Tennessee and Oklahoma.