March 17, 2004
WACO, Texas -
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
2004 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championships
Midwest Region - 1st and 2nd Rounds
#15/17 Baylor (24-8) vs. Loyola Marymount (24-5)
Sat., March 20, 2004 - 10:30 p.m. (CST)
The Pit (18,018)- Albuquerque, N.M.
20 (Saturday) - 1st Round
No. 5 seed Florida (18-10) vs. No. 12 seed New Mexico (23-7) 8 p.m. (CST)
No. 4 seed Baylor (24-8) vs. No. 13 seed Loyola Marymount (24-5) 10:30 p.m. (CST)
22 (Monday) - 2nd Round
Winner Baylor/LMU vs. Winner Florida/New Mexico - Time TBA
TELEVISION - ESPN2...
Tracey Warrren - Play-by-play
Tim McCormick - Color analysis
RADIO - KLRK - FM 92.9...
Rick May (play-by-play) and Lori Scott Fogleman (color analysis). Broadcast begins 30 minutes prior to game time (approximately 10 p.m. CST).
#15/17 BAYLOR VS. LOYOLA MARYMOUNT...
The 15th-ranked Baylor Lady Bears (24-8) are in the fourth phase of their schedule, NCAA postseason play, as they travel to Albuquerque to participate in the 2004 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championships at The Pit on the campus of the University of New Mexico. The Lady Bears came into the tourney as the championship's fourth seed in the Midwest Region.
For the fourth straight season, head coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson has guided her Baylor squad to a 20-win season. The Lady Bears passed the 20-win mark by completing a sweep of No. 24 Oklahoma on Saturday, Feb. 22 and are now 24-8.
Seven of Baylor's eight losses in 2003-04 have come against teams ranked No. 15 or higher and four have been by three points or less.
BAYLOR IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT...
Baylor is making its third appearance in the NCAA Tournament after appearing in 2001 and 2002. The Lady Bears are 1-1 in first round games and 0-1 in second round games.
2001- No. 8 seed - West Region - Durham, N.C. (Duke host)
First round - lost to No. 9 seed Arkansas (68-59)
2002- No. 2 seed - East Region - Waco, Texas (Baylor host)
First round - defeated No. 15 seed Bucknell (80-56)
Second round - lost to No. 7 seed Drake (76-72)
2004- No. 4 seed - Midwest Region - Albuquerque (New Mexico host)
First round - vs. No. 13 seed Loyola Marymount
BAYLOR IN THE POLLS...
Baylor continues to be ranked in the Associated Press' Top 25 Poll, they are currently No. 15, dropping one spot from last week. The Lady Bears broke into the AP Poll on Jan 5 and have been ranked for 11 straight weeks (see week-by-week listings on page 11). Baylor, after breaking into the Top 25 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll on Jan. 24, now sits at the No. 17 spot. After defeating No. 9 Texas Tech last week and losing by only four points to No. 2 Texas, the Lady Bears dropped two spots in the Coaches Poll.
THE LADY BEARS...
The Lady Bears finished the non-conference portion of their schedule at 12-1 and league play at 10-6. Under fourth-year head coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson's guidance the Lady Bears are 46-2 in non-conference regular season games. Baylor's league record placed them in a tie for fourth place in the conference standings with Texas Tech. However, in the tiebreaker for tournament seeding, Texas Tech received the No. 4 seed by beating Baylor in head-to-head competition. Baylor defeated the Lady Raiders in the quarterfinals of the league tournament, 80-72 and advanced to the semifinals where they lost to top-seeded Texas by four points.
Two players are averaging in double figures for Baylor with two more just under the mark. With a career-high 27 points against Washington State, sophomore post Sophia Young moved into the lead for the Lady Bears in scoring and rebounding average and has not relinquished it since. Young followed that game with the 19th double-double of her career with a 13-point, 10-rebound performance against Pacific and produced another double-double against Eastern Kentucky (21p, 11r). Young recorded back-to-back double-doubles against Colorado (14p, 11r) and Texas A&M (10p, 13r) and added four more against Kansas (20p, 11r), Texas (18p, 13r), Kansas (18p, 10r) and Texas Tech (26p, 13r). She is averaging 16.4 points and 8.6 rebounds an outing and has scored in double digits in every game but two (Missouri & Oklahoma State) this season. Steffanie Blackmon, a junior post, ranks second in both scoring and rebounding at 15.6 points and 6.9 rebounds. Freshman forward Emily Niemann comes off the bench to average 9.7 points while senior Jessika Stratton follows closely with 9.4. Senior Dionne Brown is third on the team in rebounding with 5.4 a game.
Baylor is outscoring its opponents by 16.5 points a game and leads the Big 12 in scoring offense at 77.0 points a game. They are shooting .466 (944-2027) on the season which ranks second in the Big 12. The Lady Bears are holding their opponents to just 60.5 points a game and a .361 (684-1897) shooting average. Baylor has shot .500 or above in 14 of the 32 games this season and has been over the .600 mark once (Sam Houston State .661).
BAYLOR HEAD COACH Kim Mulkey-Robertson...
Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson, in her fourth season, has a 96-34 head coaching record which equates out to a .739 winning percentage. She has produced 20-win seasons in each of her years as a head coach and has taken the Lady Bears to postseason competition all four seasons, three times to the NCAA Tournament and to the finals of the WNIT last year.
Baylor seasons under Mulkey-Robertson:
2000-01 - 21-9
2001-02 - 27-6
2002-03 - 24-11
2003-04 - 24-8
Mulkey-Robertson was named Baylor's fourth head coach on April 4, 2000. She was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame that same year. This past summer she was inducted into the CoSIDA Academic All-America Hall of Fame.
Mulkey Robertson has an impressive NCAA Championships history, this will be her 21st trip to the NCAA Tournament. She recorded three trips as a player at Louisiana Tech, 15 appearances with the Lady Techsters as an assistant/associate head coach and this is her third appearance as a head coach. In other words, she has participated in 21 of 23 NCAA Women's Basketball Championships. She missed the NCAA Tournament in 1985 because she was working on a master's degree at Louisiana Tech (she was the recipient of an NCAA Post Graduate Scholarship) and was hired as an assistant coach at her alma mater in April of 1985, thus not finishing her master's degree. Last season, her Baylor team was not selected for the NCAA Tournament despite posting a 20-win season.
NCAA TOURNAMENT TRIVIA...
There are only two NCAA Division I head coaches that are coaching teams in the 2004 Women's Basketball Championships who have played on teams that played in the NCAA Championship game, and, only one of them won a NCAA national title. Temple head coach Dawn Staley played for Virginia when they placed second in 1991 and Baylor's Kim Mulkey-Robertson played on the Louisiana Tech team that claimed the first NCAA national title in 1982.
While at Louisiana Tech as a player, Mulkey Robertson's teams placed first in 1982, second in 1983, tied for third in 1984. Throughout her career, Mulkey-Robertson, the consummate point guard, played in 14 NCAA tournament games and was 12-2 in those games. She was named to the all-tournament team in the 1982 Championships.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENT...
Loyola Marymount (LMU) Lions make their first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance after gaining an automatic berth by winning the program's first West Coast Conference Tournament Championship with a win over Gonzaga, 61-58. Loyola Marymount, the Midwest Region's No. 13 seed, has won 15 consecutive games and sports a 24-5 season record.
The Lions have two players that produce double-digit scoring averages. Senior forward Kate Murray leads the way with 16.0 points a game while another senior, center Adrian Slaughter, scores 10.8 and leads the team in rebounding at 6.7. Murray ranks second on the team in rebounding at 6.4 a game. Murray was named West Coast Conference Player of the Year and Slaughter was named to the league's first team.
Julie Wilhoit is in her ninth season as head coach on the Loyola Marymount women's program and has a record of 115-139 at LMU. She is in her 16th season overall and has a career record of 236-209. She was recently named by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association as Region 8 Coach of the Year.
THE SERIES RECORDS...
The Lady Bears and Loyola Marymount have met on three previous occasions. Baylor leads the series 2-1, posting wins in Las Cruces, N.M., (69-56) on Dec. 20, 1994 and in Waco (77-66) on Dec. 18, 2000. Loyola Marymount's victory came in Los Angeles on Dec. 21, 1999 by a score of 71-55.
COMMON OPPONENTS...
The Lady Bears and Lions have one common opponent on the season. LMU lost their season opener to North Carolina State (84-50) while the Lady Bears defeated NC State in the San Juan Shootout (79-63).
LAST MEETING...
The two team's most recent meeting came on Dec. 18, 2000 in Waco. In Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson's first season, the Lady bears posted a 77-66 victory. Four players still on the roster from LMU participated in that game and one for Baylor. LMU's Kate Murray and Adrianne Slaughter scored 16 and 13 points, respectively. Jasmin Mathews and Raelen Self each played 10 minutes or more but were scoreless. BU's Jessika Stratton played 20 minutes in that contest and tallied two points, two assists and a steal.
