Biden is hosting White House celebrations for 2024 NCAA basketball champs South Carolina and UConn

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will host 2024 NCAA basketball champions South Carolina and Connecticut on Tuesday at the White House, celebrating the two powerhouse programs’ most recent national titles.

South Carolina went 38-0 on the way to its latest women’s title, just the fifth women’s program in NCAA history to go undefeated. It was head coach Dawn Staley’s third championship with the Gamecocks since 2017. UConn coach Dan Hurley’s men’s team went 37-3 in winning its second straight title. Biden is honoring the squads with separate ceremonies in the East Room.

South Carolina’s unblemished year came even after Staley lost all five starters from her 2023 team that was defeated in the Final Four. The Gamecocks were dominant throughout their historic season, leading the nation in scoring defense, margin of victory and blocked shots.

For UConn, it was the school’s sixth men’s national title. They joined the 2006-07 Florida Gators and the 1991-92 Duke Blue Devils as just the third team to repeat since John Wooden’s UCLA dynasty of the 1960s and ’70s.

It will be the first White House visit for South Carolina. Staley and the Gamecocks did not go to the White House following championships in 2017 and 2022. Vice President Kamala Harris paid a visit to the team while she was in Columbia, South Carolina, earlier this year.

Staley, a three-time Olympic gold medalist and coach of the U.S. women’s basketball team in Tokyo three years ago, recently served as a member of the presidential delegation to the Paris Olympics.

Biden honored UConn at the White House last year following the school’s fifth championship.