March 25, 2004
WACO, Texas -
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2004 NCAA Division I
Women's Basketball Championships
Midwest Region - Sweet 16
#10/8 Stanford (26-6) vs. #13/14 Vanderbilt (26-7)
6 p.m. - ESPN2
#15/17 Baylor (26-8) vs. #2/3 Tennessee (28-3)
8:30 p.m. (CST)
Sunday, March 28
Lloyd Noble Arena (12,000)- Norman, Okla.
TELEVISION - ESPN2...
Mark Jones - Play-by-play
Nancy Lieberman - 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.
#15/17 BAYLOR VS. #2/3 TENNESSEE...
The 15th-ranked Baylor Lady Bears (26-8) are in the fourth phase of their schedule, NCAA postseason play, and, for the first time in the program's history, they have advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championships. The Lady Bears came into the tourney as the championship's fourth seed in the Midwest Region and defeated 13th-seed Loyola Marymount in the first round, 71-60, and fifth-seed Florida in second round action (91-76). They will now take on the Midwest Region's top seed, Tennessee, in Norman, Okla.
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 26-8. They need just one more win to equal the program's best record in NCAA competition, which began in the 1981-82.
Seven of Baylor's eight losses in 2003-04 have come against teams ranked 15th or higher and four have been by three points or less. In addition, seven losses have come against NCAA Tournament entrants.
Six-time national champion Tennessee, the Midwest Region's No. 1 seed, is making its 23rd straight NCAA Tournament appearance and has advanced to the Sweet 16 every time. Stanford is the region's No. 6 seed, Vanderbilt is seeded No. 2 and Baylor is a No. 4 seed. Sunday's winners meet in the Elite Eight, Tuesday, March 30, with a trip to the Final Four in the Big Easy on the line.
UNCHARTED TERRITORY...
With its wins in first and second round games, Baylor has moved into uncharted territory for the Lady Bear program. The Lady Bears advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time in the program's history. Every year that they participate in the NCAA Tournament, the Lady Bears advance one step further than the previous trip. They lost in the first round in 2001, advanced to the second round in 2002 and are now set to play in their third game of the 2004 Championships.
BAYLOR IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT...
Baylor is making its third appearance in the NCAA Tournament appearance after trips in 2001 and 2002. The Lady Bears are 2-1 in first round games and 1-1 in second round games. Baylor is making its first Sweet 16 appearance.
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 - defeated No. 13 seed Loyola Marymount (71-60)
Second round - defeated No. 5 seed Florida (91-76)
AND THEN THERE WERE TWO...
Two Big 12 teams, Texas and Baylor, advanced to the Sweet 16. Texas defeated Michigan State (72-60) to advance. Of the Big 12's seven teams in the tournament, Colorado and Missouri bowed out in the first round while Kansas State, Texas Tech and Oklahoma lost in second round games.
In addition, Baylor and Texas are the only two schools in the Sweet 16 from Texas. Houston, Texas Tech and TCU each lost in the second round.
PRIVATE SCHOOLS...
Three private schools are playing in Sunday's Midwest Regional. Baylor, Stanford and Vanderbilt are private institutions while Tennessee is a state supported school.
BAYLOR ACTION IN NORMAN THIS WEEKEND...
There will be plenty of Baylor action in Norman this weekend. The Bears' baseball team will be in Norman for a three-game stand with Oklahoma this weekend. The baseball games are scheduled for 7 p.m., on Friday, 2 p.m., on Saturday and 1 p.m., on Sunday. The women's basketball team takes on Tennessee on Sunday at 8:30 p.m.
BAYLOR IN THE POLLS...
Baylor continues to be ranked in the Associated Press' Top 25 Poll, it is currently No. 15. 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 in the Big 12 Tournament and losing by only four points to No. 2 Texas in the semifinals of the Big 12 Tournament, 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 it 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 it lost to top-seeded Texas by four points.
Two players are averaging in double figures for Baylor with two more just under the mark, however one of those double-digit scorers, Steffanie Blackmon, is out for the season after reinjuring her knee. With a then-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 five more against Kansas (20p, 11r), Texas (18p, 13r), Kansas (18p, 10r), Texas Tech (26p, 13r) and Florida (23p, 11r). She is averaging 16.9 points and 8.6 rebounds an outing and has scored in double digits in every game but two (Missouri & Oklahoma State) this season. 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 9.8 points while senior Jessika Stratton follows closely with 9.5. Senior Dionne Brown is third on the team in rebounding with 5.5 a game.
Baylor is outscoring its opponents by 16.3 points a game and leads the Big 12 in scoring offense at 77.3 points a game. It is shooting .463 (1,000-2,158) on the season which ranks second in the Big 12. The Lady Bears are holding their opponents to just 60.9 points a game and a .361 (728-2017) shooting mark. Baylor has shot .500 or above in 14 of the 34 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 98-34 head coaching record which equates to a .742 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 - 26-8
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, as this is 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 it 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.
MULKEY-ROBERTSON VERSUS TENNESSEE...
Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson is very familiar with Tennessee as both a player and a coach. While playing point guard for Louisiana Tech, Mulkey-Robertson was 5-0 against the Lady Vols. As an assistant/associate head coach, she was 7-13 versus Tennessee. This will be her first game against Tennessee as a head coach.
In NCAA Tournament games, she is 1-0 as a player and 2-2 as an assistant coach versus Tennessee.
In addition, Tennessee coach Pat Summitt was head coach of the 1984 U.S. Olympic team and Mulkey-Robertson played on that team. The squad went on to win the gold medal that year.
MULKEY-ROBERTSON NEARING 100 VICTORIES...
Kim Mulkey-Robertson has 98 career wins under her belt. In order to reach the century mark this season, the Lady Bears would have to win the Midwest Regional and advance to the Final Four. If that happens, she would reach the century mark faster than Tennessee head coaching legend Pat Summitt did. It took Summitt three years and 362 days to reach 100. If Baylor wins two more games this season, Mulkey-Robertson would reach it in three years and 130 days.
BAYLOR PLAYERS AMONG NCAA FIRST AND SECOND ROUND STAT LEADERS...
Four Baylor players rank among the leaders in combined first and second round NCAA per game statistics:
Sophia Young - #2 in scoring (23.5); #9t in rebounding (9.0)
Emily Niemann - #5 in 3-point field goals made (3.50)
Jessika Stratton - #8 in assist/turnover ratio (5.00)
Chelsea Whitaker - #10 in assist/turnover ratio (4.25)
BAD NEWS BLACKMONS...
Twins Steffanie and Tiffanie Blackmon, juniors, have both been sidelines by injuries recently. Steffanie, who averaged 15.6 points, 6.9 rebounds and 28.1 minutes a game, reinjured her right knee. For the third time in the past nine month she suffered a subluxation of her patella. She injured it most-recently in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament when the Lady Bears posted a victory over 10th-ranked Texas Tech. She is expected to undergo surgery in the offseason.
Tiffanie, a 6-0 post, ruptured her left achilles tendon in practice prior to Baylor's first round game in Albuquerque, N.M. Prior to the injury she had seen limited action, playing in only 11 games this season.
WHO'S STEPPED UP...
With the absence of junior post Steffanie Blackmon, senior Dionne Brown has assumed a starting role and has answered the call in fine fashion. Brown has scored in double figures in six of the last seven games, averaging 12.0 points a game over that span. In the last four games, Brown has been shooting extremely well, she is 23-of-41 for a .561 field goal percentage.
In addition, Sophia Young, since Blackmon has been sidelined, has averaged 25.8 points and 10.0 rebounds a game.
Freshman Abiola Wabara, a 6-0 forward, has started in nine of the last 10 games but has really stepped up her intensity in the past three games. In the games against Texas, Loyola Marymount and Florida she has averaged 17.7 minutes and 6.3 points a game.
FRESHMEN TRIO...
Baylor's three freshmen Monique Jones, Emily Niemann and Abiola Wabara combined to score 37 points in the Lady Bears' victory over Florida. Niemann, the team's 3-point ace with a school-record 72 makes this season, poured in 16 points, including four treys. Jones, scored 11 of her 13 points in the first half and Wabara added eight points. The trio combined for a .636 field goal percentage, Wabara was 4-of-6 from the floor, Jones was 5-of-6 and Niemann was 5-for-10.
FAST FACTS...
* Baylor is 25-3 this season when scoring 70 or more points, they are 13-0 when scoring 80 or more.
* Baylor is 23-2 when holding its opponent to less than 40 percent shooting from the floor.
* Baylor is 19-2 on the year when allowing 65 or fewer points, 15-0 when yielding 60 or fewer.
* Baylor is 13-1 when shooting 50.0 percent or better from the field.
* In the last five minutes of the game, Baylor players shoot 80 percent from the free throw line, as they are 145-of-181. They are 3-of-4 in overtime free throws.
* Baylor is 8-1 this season on neutral courts (losing to Texas in the Big 12 Tournament, Reunion Arena, Dallas).
* Baylor has recorded double-digit steals in 24 of 34 games.
* Baylor has come back from a double-digit deficit four times to win (more on page 6).
* Baylor has outrebounded its opponent in 27 of 34 games this season and recorded 40 or more 20 times.
* Baylor has shot .500 or above in 14 of 34 games this season.
* Sophia Young has scored at least 20 points nine times this season and 14 times in her career.
* Sophia Young has 10 double-doubles on the season and 27 for her career.
* Steffanie Blackmon has scored in double figures in 28 of 31 games and scored at least 20 eight times this year.
* Emily Niemann has hit a 3-pointer in 30 of 34 games, hitting a trey in her first 14 collegiate games.
* Jessika Stratton has hit a 3-pointer in 22 of 34 games.
* Sophia Young has scored in double figures 60 times in 67 career games, including 32 of 34 this season (9 points against Missouri, 6 vs. Oklahoma State).
* Sophia Young has hauled down double-digit rebounds in 10 games this season and 27 in her career.
* Young has scored 20 or more points in the last four games (26 vs. Texas Tech, 30 vs. Texas, 24 vs. Loyola Marymount, 23 vs. Florida).
* Jessika Stratton and Chameka Scott each played 40 minutes against Nebraska. Stratton played every minute (50) of the double overtime game against Texas.
* Jessika Stratton has played 40 minutes or more in six games this season, Texas, Texas Tech (2), Kansas State, Nebraska, Texas (2OT).
* Sophomore Sophia Young now has 644 rebounds and 1,070 points.
* Dionne Brown has scored in double figures in six of the last seven games.
* Jessika Stratton narrowly missed a triple-double against Florida, she finished the game with 12 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists. In addition, she has scored in double figures in four of the last five games.
* In the last five games, point guard Chelsea Whitaker has averaged 7.2 assists a game.
* In the last two games, Baylor has a combined 16 turnovers and it has turned the ball over less than 10 times in three of the last four games.
* The game with Tennessee will be Baylor's third this season against the nation's second-ranked team. It faced Texas Tech when it was No. 2 (L, 64-64) and Texas (L, 63-59). This will be Baylor's fifth game against a team ranked in the top five.
* Baylor will go through the season without losing back-to-back games. That has never happened in the history of Lady Bear basketball.
* Baylor needs 17 points to exceed the program's highest point total in NCAA competition. The 2002-03 squad scored 2,644 and Baylor currently has 2,627 this season.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENT...
The University of Tennessee Lady Vols are making their 23rd NCAA Tournament appearance and advanced to their 23rd consecutive Sweet 16 appearance after defeating Colgate (77-54) and DePaul (79-59) in the first and second rounds, respectively. The Lady Vols have won six national titles, the last coming in 1998.
Shyra Ely, a 6-2 junior forward, leads the team in both scoring and rebounding with 14.9 points and 8.1 rebounds an outing. Sophomore guard Shanna Zolman(5-10) scores 12.4 a game and Tasha Butts, a 5-11 senior guard, averages 10.1.
Lady Vol head coach Pat Summitt is in her 30th season as Tennessee's head coach. She has guided the team to six national titles. Summitt has 82 NCAA Tournament wins among her 849 career victories, second only to Dean Smith and Adolph Rupp among college basketball coaches. She is the nation's winningest collegiate women's basketball coach. She currently has a career record of 849-166.
THE SERIES RECORDS...
This will be the first meeting between the two teams.
COMMON OPPONENTS...
The Lady Vols and the Lady Bears have faced four common opponents this season. Baylor swept Oklahoma and Tennessee also won in Norman, Tennessee swept Mississippi State twice and Baylor posted a won over the Bulldogs, each team defeated Florida, Baylor twice and Tennessee once. Both teams lost to Texas but Baylor also posted a win over the Longhorns.
