The remaining teams are granted "at-large" bids, which are extended by the NCAA Selection Committee. In addition to all players returning from the 2007 team, #1 ranked high school player Maya Moore joined the team after a bitter recruitment battle between UConn and Tennessee. Tennessee defeated Connecticut again in the 199798 regular season. Taurasi finished her high school career ranked second to Cheryl Miller in state history with 3,047 points.[29]. With no seniors on the roster, 2003 was supposed to be a rebuilding year for UConn, but as the year progressed it became clear that Taurasi was up to the challenge of carrying a group of young players to the championship. Although the entire team returned and expectations were sky high for a "three-peat" in Taurasi's senior year, UConn had an uneven season. Women's Basketball Records Books (since 2001) Women's Final Four Records Books (since 2001) Women's Basketball Championships Results and In comparison, the contract for the men's tournament is valued at over $700 million annually. UConn followed up its surprise run to the Final Four in 1991 by landing All-American Rebecca Lobo from Southwick, Massachusetts. Five of them have been first overall picks: Sue Bird (2002), Diana Taurasi (2004), Tina Charles (2010), Maya Moore (2011), and Breanna Stewart (2016). The Orange fell short in their NCAA tournament bid, falling to NC State 83-58 in the ACC Tournament, but they received a bid for this years Womens National No. The 201112 season would inevitably be a new era after Maya Moore's graduation. During her tenure, shooting guard Karen Mullins was the first UConn woman to receive a basketball scholarship; that number had increased to 12 by 1980. After the end of the NCAA tournament, the Associated Press selects a Most Outstanding Player. The NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 women's college basketball teams from the Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), to determine the national championship. The only close game the Huskies played all year long was a win at Virginia Tech. Moore was named the Tournament Most Outstanding Player, to go along with her second straight Wade Trophy award and Academic All-America of the Year award. WebThis is a list of top Women's Division I college basketball teams ranked by the number of wins through the end of the 202122 season (minimum of 10 years as a Division I Guide for the College-Bound Student-Athlete National Letter of Intent NCAA Eligibility Center Recruiting Your Journey Balance Your Schedule Name, Image, This season also saw the birth of one of the greatest rivalries in college sports, the UConn-Tennessee rivalry, that began when the two teams met for the first time on Martin Luther King Day at Gampel Pavilion. With Faris and Doty graduated, sophomore Breanna Stewart was the undisputed leader of the 201314 UConn team, starting in all 40 games and leading the team with 19.4 points and 2.8 blocks per game; her 291 field goals made was the third-highest single-season total in UConn annals. The first NCAA women's basketball tournament was held in 1982. In 1995, UConn entered the tournament 290, beat Tennessee for the national title, and ended the season 350. The only team to play on its home court was Texas in 1987, which lost its semifinal game at the Frank Erwin Special Events Center. 4 are shown with .mw-parser-output .tooltip-dotted{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}dotted underline. First Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Notre Dame defected to the Atlantic Coast Conference, with Louisville announcing later they would follow in 2014. With the TASS force in their senior season and Taurasi emerging as a star in her sophomore year, UConn rolled through its opponents throughout the year. Still, the tournament receives a smaller amount of funding from broadcast rights (which are held by ESPN, and are pooled with those of other NCAA Division I championships besides golf and men's basketball) and sponsorship (which are sold by CBS and Turner Sports) than the men's tournament. UConn trailed for the entire game and lost for the first time since their April 6, 2008 Final Four appearance (also against the Cardinal). The Huskies also became the first unbeaten team in NCAA history (all divisions, men or women) to win 35 games in a season. The tournament was preceded by the AIAW women's basketball tournament, which was organized by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) from 1972 to 1982. UConn started the game with its worst first half in school history by scoring only 12 points; only 11 teams in tournament history have been held to 12 points or less in the first half: three of them were against UConn teams, and two of them (Southern and Temple) just days earlier in the 2010 Tournament. In the National Tournament, both Connecticut and Notre Dame were seeded first in their respective playoff brackets; each advanced to the Final Four held in Tampa, Florida. [87] During this period, UConn won five national titles, while making the Final Four seven of the ten years. These are the highest FCS first-round NFL draft picks ever - [2] The tournament is often overshadowed by the more-prominent men's tournament; after a gender equality review following the 2021 tournament, the NCAA expanded it to the current 68-team format of the men's tournament, and extended the "March Madness" branding to the tournament as well. [66], The 20172018 season was very similar to the previous one. 3 Baylor 76 | Watch highlights No. Coach Auriemma is one of the most successful coaches in college basketball: his 1149150 (.885) record as of April2022[update] represents the highest winning percentage among NCAA basketball coaches (minimum 10 seasons), any level, men's or women's,[9] while ranking him second in all-time women's wins behind current Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer. The Scope has never been the Lady Monarchs' regular home court. The Lady Bears became the first team in NCAA college basketball history, for either women or men, to win 40 games in a season. The #8 seed is 5355 against the #9 seed (.491). Basketball was one of 12 women's sports added to the NCAA championship program for the 198182 school year, as the NCAA engaged in battle with the AIAW for sole governance of women's collegiate sports. In its announcement, UConn stated that going forward, number retirement would be reserved for former Huskies players inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, as Lobo was in 2017. (Other possibilities are that the team is independent, or is from a conference not yet eligible for an automatic bid.) They respectively beat Oklahoma, Louisville, and Stanford in those championship games. She achieved legendary status among UConn fans, and is widely considered one of the greatest players of all time.[37]. The Huskies advanced to their first Final Four since 1996 and beat Penn State in the semifinals, reaching the Lady Vols for the championship game in Auriemma's hometown of Philadelphia. At the same time, the Huskies announced that the #34 worn by Ray Allen, a 2018 Naismith Hall inductee, would be retired by UConn men's basketball, with ceremonies held during the season's final men's home game on March 3, 2019. Those tournament victories were largely credited to senior Charde Houston, a top recruit out of San Diego viewed as not living up to expectations from Geno Auriemma and the UConn fans up to that point, who came up with key rebounds and clutch points in those games. In 1980 the university hired Jean Balthaser, who had coached at the University of Pittsburgh. Connecticut defeated Maryland 8158, while Notre Dame narrowly beat South Carolina, 6665, in the semifinals. The LSU Tigers defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes 102-85 Sunday to win the programs first NCAA womens basketball national championship in Dallas, Texas. [2], The UConn Huskies are the most successful women's basketball program in the nation, having won a record 11 NCAA Division I National Championships and a women's record four in a row, from 2013 through 2016,[3] plus over 50 conference regular season and tournament championships. All four #1 seeds have made it to the Final Four 4 times (champion in bold): The championship game has matched two #1 seeds 14 times: Three teams have beaten three #1 seeds during the course of a tournament (the largest number of such teams that can be faced) (all three teams won the national championship as beating a 3rd #1 seed in a single tournament can only happen in the finals): Prior to the expansion of the tournament to 64 teams, all four #1 seeds advanced to the Sweet Sixteen with three exceptions. 16 FDU 70 | Watch highlights No. Including these final tournament games, Bascom had set a new UConn scoring record with 2,177 points during her years at the school.[12]. ESPN's standard definition channels were used to broadcast games on a regional basis, while games could also be viewed in their entirety on ESPN3 or alternate channels. [17] Coverage later expanded to include ESPN's college sports-oriented network ESPNU, and ESPN360 for streaming. [5], UConn owns the two longest winning streaks (men's or women's) in college basketball history. The loss ended the highly publicized winning streak, as well as their long held spot as the top ranked team in women's basketball which was taken over by Baylor. The following table summarizes some of the key attributes of the seeding process:[6]. Geno Auriemma seemed to find the right pieces with a freshman class that included Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, Brianna Banks and Kiah Stokes. [6] The second streak counts 90 consecutive wins, including two undefeated seasons (200809 and 200910), and was delimited by two losses against Stanford, the first on April 6, 2008 in the National Semifinals of the NCAA Tournament, and the second three seasons later on December 19, 2010. This was during the AIAW era for women's basketball. The Huskies won 18 tournaments in 31 years. Connecticut's final season record was 361 and Shea Ralph was named the Final Four's MVP. The teams met again on April 7, 2015 in the national championship game. In 1996, seeds were assigned on a national basis using an "S-Curve" format[clarification needed] similar to the process used in selecting the field for the men's tournament. The team beat every opponent by at least 10 points and easily reached the NCAA tournament finals, where they met unbeaten Notre Dame, making it the first matchup of two undefeated teams in the championship game. The 200405 season was marked with sloppy play and ragged offense; UConn lost 8 games and failed to win the Big East regular season crown for the first time since 1993. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. [13][14], In an interview on NBC's Meet the Press on the day of the 2023 national championship, new NCAA president Charlie Baker implicated that the media rights to the women's basketball tournament may be sold separately in the next rights cycle, stating that "we do have an opportunity to put it out separately, and we're going to work really hard to make sure that those student-athletes, those schools, those programs get what I describe as what they should get. [24], Following major media criticism of inequities between the 2021 men's and women's tournaments, the NCAA commissioned a comprehensive gender equity review of its championships by the law firm Kaplan Hecker & Fink. Discovery Sports),[15] and golf (which is held by Golf Channel). With their eleventh championship win in 2016, the UConn Huskies have tied the UCLA Bruins men's team for most college basketball championships, and became the first Division I women's basketball team to win four straight national championships. [18] In 2011, ESPN renewed this agreement through the 202324 season, in a deal reported to be worth $500 million in total. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. In the NCAA tournament, UConn lost to Stanford in the Sweet Sixteen. High school All-Americans Swin Cash, Tamika Williams, Sue Bird, Asjha Jones, and Keirsten Walters were dubbed "TASSK Force" by Connecticut fans, using the players' initials. Their combined record is 12823 .848; they have been to 22 Final Fours and are 11-time National Champions (1995, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016). Stewart finished with 2,676 points (2nd Husky ever), 1,179 rebounds (4th Husky ever), 426 assists and 414 blocked shots (1st Husky ever), and was a #1 pick in 2016 WNBA draft. Their play was uneven during the regular season, where UConn went 273 with a loss to Baylor and a pair of losses to Notre Dame (including a three-overtime game in South Bend); in the Big East tournament UConn lost a third straight time to Notre Dame that delivered a last-minute comeback. The longest streak, 111 straight wins, started with a win against Creighton University on November 23, 2014, and ended on March 31, 2017 when a buzzer-beater at the end of overtime caused a 6664 loss in the 2017 NCAA Final Four to Mississippi State. [10] As, by definition, a team would have to win its conference tournament, and thus secure an automatic bid to the tournament, to be undefeated in a season, the only way a team could finish undefeated and not reach the tournament is if the team is banned from postseason play. Stanford itself only managed to score 20 points in the first half. After just one winning season in 10 years under coaches Sandra Hamm (197475), Wanda Flora (197580) and Jean Balthaser (198085), UConn hired as their new head coach Geno Auriemma, who had served as assistant coach at Virginia, with the goal of revitalizing the program. The #6 seed is 7533 against the #11 seed (.694). WebThe UConn Huskies are the most successful women's basketball program in the nation, having won a record 11 NCAA Division I National Championships and a women's In 202021, UConn rejoined several of its former conference mates in the current Big East Conference. This page was last edited on 28 April 2023, at 05:31. Despite losing Mel Thomas and Kalana Greene to season-ending knee injuries, UConn went through the 200708 regular season with only a single loss at Rutgers, by two points, winning both the Big East regular season and tournament titles. UConn won by a score of 6353 to achieve their third straight national championship and tenth total, with coach Auriemma tying a record set by John Wooden in college basketball. The Women's Final Four and championship remained exclusive to ESPN. Annual college basketball tournament for women, NCAA women's college basketball tournaments, NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament. WebAnnual Team Champions 36 Miscellaneous Team Leaders 42 Statistical Trends History 44 Division I Winningest Teams 45 Winning and Losing Streaks 49 National Polls 53 [24] With Shea Ralph and senior Nykesha Sales out for the entire season, freshman Svetlana Abrosimova led a young UConn team to the NCAA Tournament Regional Final where they eventually lost to North Carolina State 6052. In her career at UConn, Taurasi led the team to four consecutive Final Fours and three straight national titles. In an early test, UConn squeaked by #2 Baylor in their second game of the season. [30] As a consequence, Taurasi had to play a much larger role than anticipated in the NCAA Tournament. A mini controversy erupted in the days after the game when Tennessee's Chamique Holdsclaw was quoted in the papers as saying UConn looked scared during the game; Auriemma denounced that quote. Notre Dame, led by junior star Skylar Diggins, beat the Huskies twice in the regular season, but UConn was able to reverse the roles in the Big East tournament Championship Game; the win was the school's 15th conference title, as well as the 800th career win for coach Geno Auriemma. Because of the automatic bids, only 36 teams (the at-large bids) rely on the selection committee to secure them a spot in the tournament. Due to venue availability, in some cases, the lower seed hosted, or the game was played at a neutral site. [15] UConn blew out Stanford in the semifinals behind Wolters' 31 points, reaching the championship game for a rematch against Tennessee. They are one of nine ACC teams slated to be in the mix for a postseason bid in some capacity. [28], Auriemma pulled off another huge recruiting coup when he convinced All-American guard Diana Taurasi to travel across country to attend Connecticut. UConn completed their sixth undefeated season winning the 11th overall Championship (all-time record for both men's and women's college basketball) and 4th in a row (also a record for women's college basketball). The NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament, sometimes referred to as Women's March Madness,[1] is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 women's college basketball teams from the Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), to determine the national championship. In 2018, UConn entered the tournament 320, but lost in the Final Four to Notre Dame, ending their 36-game winning streak to finish 361. [32], With the TASS force graduated, Diana Taurasi had to carry most of the load in her junior season, with help from returning teammates Maria Conlon, Jessica Moore and Ashley Battle and a top-ranked recruiting class of Ann Strother, Barbara Turner, Willnet Crockett and Nicole Wolff. [82] UConn's announcement did not make it clear whether both numbers would be retired across both men's and women's programs, but a university spokesperson clarified that the retirements applied only to the teams that Lobo and Allen competed for, meaning that #50 remains available in men's basketball and #34 in women's. UConn went unbeaten through the Conference regular season and Tournament and easily advanced into the NCAA Tournament; in the regional final against Virginia a 4-points win in their closest game of the year opened the doors of the Final Four at the Target Center in Minneapolis. The team is transitioning from a lower NCAA division, during which time it is barred by NCAA rule from participation in NCAA-sponsored postseason play. Division regular season champion The women's basketball players list includes guards Sue Bird, Bria Hartley, Moriah Jefferson, Renee Montgomery, Shea Ralph, Jennifer Rizzotti, Nykesha Sales, and Diana Taurasi; forwards Svetlana Abrosimova, Swin Cash, Napheesa Collier, Maya Moore, Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, Katie Lou Samuelson, Breanna Stewart, Morgan Tuck, and Gabby Williams; centers Kerry Bascom, Tina Charles, Stefanie Dolson, Rebecca Lobo, and Kara Wolters. Inheriting a program that had only had one winning season in its entire history, Auriemma has overseen one of the most successful rebuilding projects in college sports history. Sales then held the school scoring record. With Bascom and teammates Laura Lishness, Megan Pattyson, Wendy Davis and Debbie Baer, UConn reached the NCAA Tournament again in 1990, losing 6159 to Clemson in the second round after a first-round bye. In the NCAA tournament UConn reached the Elite Eight but came up short in its hopes to make it back to the Final Four, losing to eventual champion North Carolina. [70] They lost to the number one overall seed South Carolina 64-49. With a perfect 350 record, UConn became only the fifth Division I women's basketball team to go undefeated en route to a national championship, and only the second in the NCAA era (since 1982). As the season progressed, however, the team quickly found its rhythm, beating ranked teams like Baylor, Notre Dame and Maryland, and showcasing a talented core of young players. UConn was a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament, but eventually lost to LSU in the regional final to end the season with a 324 record. UConn's season ended with a 6155 loss to top-seeded Virginia in the national semifinals at Lakefront Arena in New Orleans. While other #1 seeds Notre Dame, South Carolina and Baylor suffered early upsets in the NCAA Tournament, UConn easily advanced to the Final Four where they defeated Oregon State 8051 and then old Big East rival Syracuse 8251 in the Championship Game. 2023 college baseball conference tournaments: Schedules - During the regular season UConn played 11 games against ranked opponents (including 6 in the top ten) with an average margin of victory of 24. In 2002, 2009, and 2010, UConn entered the tournament 330, won the national title in each, and ended those seasons 390. The NCAA tournament has undergone dramatic expansion since its first edition in 1982, and only one unbeaten team has failed to qualify for the tournamentCalifornia Baptist in 2021, which was 240 after winning the Western Athletic Conference Tournament. Tennessee avenged itself in the Final Four that year in Charlotte, defeating UConn 8883 in overtime; the game is often thought to be one of the more memorable tournament games in tournament history with many back and forth swings of momentum. Since the women's tournament began in 1982, 19 teams have entered the tournament ranked #1 in at least 1 poll and gone on to win the tournament: Only once has the reigning champion (the previous year's winner) not made it to the tournament the next year. The move to [17] The team was honored with a parade in Hartford, CT that drew over 100,000 spectators. The #4 seed is 1017 against the #13 seed (.935). "[36], Taurasi received many personal accolades at UConn including the 2003 and 2004 Naismith College Player of the Year awards, the 2003 Wade Trophy, the 2003 Associated Press Women's College Basketball Player of the Year award, the 2003 USBWA Women's National Player of the Year award and the 2004 Best Female Athlete ESPY Award. Old Dominion enjoyed nearly as large an advantage in 1983 when the Final Four was played at the Norfolk Scope in its home city of Norfolk, Virginia, but also lost its semifinal. Baylor and Stanford have each won three, while South Carolina, Notre Dame, Louisiana Tech and In 1986, Texas entered the tournament 300, beat USC for the national title, and ended the season 340. In 2010 Sports Illustrated selected the top 25 sports franchises of the decade 20002009. [52] Notre Dame went on to the National Championship Game, but were defeated by the Texas A&M Aggies. Teams were allowed to play at home, if hosting. The following table shows the UConn players recipients of the major individual awards in women's college basketball. Maya Moore gave UConn the lead (2322) in the second half with a three-pointer and led the team on a scoring run of 306 that eventually secured the national championship with a final score of 5347. Maya Moore and Tina Charles played little more than half the minutes of every game, with Moore averaging one point per minute played, and the team outscoring its opponents by an average of 47 points. [11], In Auriemma's 6th season (199091) the program broke through on the national scene, again capturing the Big East regular season and Tournament titles, and earning a #3 seed in the East Regional of the NCAA Tournament, its highest seed up to then. ODU has always used on-campus arenas, first the ODU Fieldhouse and since 2002 Chartway Arena. The keys to Notre Dame's success were the stellar performance of sophomore Skylar Diggins and the hot shooting (over 50 percent from the field, a first against UConn in its last 262 games), while UConn had a lack of support for Moore's 36 points. [3] The team had also made the semi-finals for 14 consecutive tournaments. UConn has also been one of the leaders in women's basketball attendance; the team plays its home games at both the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion in Storrs and the XL Center in Hartford. The following year, USC won the national title at Pauley Pavilion, the home court of its Los Angeles arch-rival UCLA. The first regular season game, a 2-point win against #12 Florida State, seemed to confirm the expectations, with coach Auriemma predicting "a good beat" ahead. The Lady Vols havent been back to the Final Four since. [85], In the 2016 WNBA draft UConn performed even better, with the three seniors Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck sweeping the first three picks for the first time in the history of any major sport.[86]. Ms. Balthaser continued to expand the program, leading UConn to its first winning season in her first year as coach, and finishing with a 5288 record over five seasons. [68], On December 19 a win over Oklahoma gave coach Geno Auriemma his 1000th victory in just 1135 games, making him only the fourth women's coach to reach that plateau preceded by Pat Summitt, Tara VanDerveer and Sylvia Hatchell and the fastest one. Geno Auriemma jokingly once referred to Pat Summitt and Tennessee as the "evil empire", like Red Sox president and CEO Larry Lucchino said of the Yankees. Her absence and the loss of 6th-man Lorin Dixon left significant holes to fill in the roster. In the NCAA tournament UConn key-players Stewart, Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, Stefanie Dolson and senior Kelly Faris raised their level of play, and UConn easily advanced to the Final Four; in the semifinals they handily beat Notre Dame and in the finals they obtained a 9360 win over Louisville, who had earlier upset Baylor, for a record tying eighth national championship. After graduating from college in California, Wanda Flora went to graduate school at Indiana University, where she was an assistant coach for the women's basketball team and coached the junior varsity team.
