The NCAA Tournament is almost here. Is Louisville women's basketball still a No. 1 seed?

The NCAA Tournament selection show is still weeks away, but the Louisville women's basketball team only has a few opportunities left to make an impression on the selection committee.

With two regular-season games and the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament remaining, Louisville (27-2, 13-1 ACC) is ranked No. 5 in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll and No. 4 in the Associated Press top 25.

But are the Cardinals a No. 1 NCAA seed?

So far, the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee thinks so. Louisville was the third overall seed, No. 1 in the Lexington Region, in the committee's third and final top-16 reveal Monday evening.

Here's what the Cardinals need to do to stay there:

Win out the regular season

Louisville hosts Virginia and Pittsburgh this week for its final two regular-season matchups, teams it beat by a combined 62 points earlier this year.

Virginia (16-11, 9-5) is now sixth in the ACC after at one point holding a three-way tie with Louisville and Notre Dame for first place but is still considered a tournament team. Pittsburgh (10-16, 2-11) is struggling to hold its head above water as one of the league's bottom three teams.

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Louisville should win both of those games, but the Cardinals have gotten off to slow starts in recent contests against Boston College and Clemson, the league's two worst teams. Although Louisville ended up winning both games handily, the performances weren't as dominant as expected and showed some cracks in Louisville's veneer.

Losses to Virginia or Pittsburgh would not only look bad to the NCAA selection committee but would affect the Cardinals' chance at a regular-season ACC title and the seeding for the conference tournament. Louisville and Notre Dame (25-2, 13-1) each have two games left and are in line to share the regular-season crown. If they do, the ACC will award Louisville the top seed in the conference tournament since the Cardinals beat the Fighting Irish in January.

Reach the finals of the ACC Tournament

The ACC Tournament begins Feb. 28 in Greensboro, North Carolina, with the top nine teams receiving first-round byes. Eight ACC teams are considered viable candidates for the NCAA Tournament field, and with such a strong league the conference tournament holds a lot of weight.

Louisville has reached the ACC semifinals in three consecutive seasons but has never appeared in the championship game.

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Notre Dame, Louisville's main challenger, has ended Louisville's conference tournament run four times in the past 10 seasons, once in the ACC and three times in the Big East. But the Fighting Irish are already also a likely No. 1 NCAA seed, so losing to them isn't likely to demote the Cardinals from the top four. Louisville's regular-season loss to Connecticut, another No. 1 seed, didn't damage its standing.

As a projected No. 3 seed, Florida State (22-5, 10-4) actually poses more of a threat to Louisville. The Cardinals already lost to the Seminoles in January, and a second upset could push the committee to re-evaluate Louisville's seeding.

Keep an eye on other conference champions

Even if Louisville tanks in the ACC Tournament, the committee's decision will come down to this: Is there another team that deserves to replace them?

Louisville has signature wins over Ohio State, Michigan and Oregon. How those teams fare in the Big Ten and Pac-12 tournaments will be important in adding or subtracting value from those victories for the Cardinals.

The results of other conference tournaments could potentially shake up the NCAA seeding as well, so Louisville's fate isn't entirely in its own hands. But the bottom line is that closing out the regular season and the ACC Tournament on a high note will give the Cardinals a lot more confidence going into Selection Monday.

UP NEXT

LOUISVILLE VS VIRGINIA

7 p.m. Thursday, KFC Yum Center

Online: ACC Network Extra/ Watch ESPN Radio: WKRD-790

Danielle Lerner: 502-582-4042; dlerner@courierjournal.com; Twitter: @Danielle_Lerner. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/daniellel