Sixty games down, and three very important ones to go. With games Monday and Tuesday, the NCAA Women's College Basketball tournament has now weeded out the four best teams in the nation, and, with their eye on the trophy, Michigan State, Tennessee, Baylor and Louisiana State University are gearing up for the next round. The road to the Final Four has been a long one, and with the amount of hype, talent and intensity guaranteed to be in the house on Sunday, the competition is only going to get tougher.
Michigan State: Long considered the lesser half of the MSU basketball program, the Lady Spartans have come into their own this season. Compiling a 32-3 record for the most wins in school history and nabbing the top seed in the Kansas City region, MSU now has a legitimate shot the program's first national title to go along with the team's first-ever Big 10 banner, brought home last month. The Lady Spartans are simply fun to watch, with four of five starters averaging in double figures and the lowest average points allowed in the league. With All-Big 10 point guard Kristin Haynie in the backcourt and 6'1" forward Liz Shimek, the Lady Spartans have a real shot to add some hardware to the women's side of the trophy case.
Road to the Final Four: The Lady Spartan's postseason r?©sum?© includes wins over Alcorn State (73-41), USC (61-59), Vanderbilt (76-64) and Tuesday's 79-69 defeat of second-seeded Stanford.
Tennessee: The Lady Vols find themselves in familiar territory, headed to their 16th Final Four in school history, as Pat Summit's program has become a monolith of postseason play. All-American Shyra Ely, who is scoring nearly 15 points per game from the low blocks, and the outside shooting threat of Shanna Zolman, shooting over 40 percent from beyond the arc, makes Tennessee a formidable opponent, even for high-flying Michigan State. The two square off on Sunday at 9:30 p.m.
Road to the Final Four: Western Carolina (94-43), Purdue (75-54), Texas Tech (75-59) and Rutgers (59-49) all proved relatively easy opponents for the Lady Vols as they breezed their way to the coveted fifth round.
LSU: Lady Tigers spent most of the season at the top of nearly every national poll, and remain the favorite to win it all. With only a single blemish on their regular-season record - a 51-49 overtime loss to Rutgers - LSU claimed the school's first regular-season SEC title with a 14-0 league record, along with a host of other postseason accolades that included SEC Player of the Year (the unstoppable Seimone Augustus), two first-team All-Conference selections, and SEC Coach of the Year. With Augustus and point guard Temeka Johnson, who is arguably the best at her spot in the game, Pokey Chatman may be able to cap her first season as head coach with a national title.
Road to the Final Four: The Lady Tigers have had a relatively easy dance, running over Stetson (70-36), Arizona (76-43) and Liberty (90-48) before coming up against a team ranked higher than ninth. In the Elite Eight, Duke finally gave LSU a real fight, and seemed poised to unseat the heavy favorites. But once the Lady Tigers recovered from the initial shock of facing, well, a real basketball team, the Blue Devils' moment had come and gone, and Duke fell 59-49.
Baylor: Another newcomer to the Final Four, Baylor has made increasingly large splashes in the tourney in its four appearances under coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson. Perhaps the largest of all was the Lady Bears' 72-63 defeat of top-ranked North Carolina in the Elite Eight on Monday. While the only second-ranked team among the four, Baylor has proven itself time and time again this season, grabbing both the Big 12 regular-season and tournament titles. Junior guard Sophia Young is averaging 18.1 ppg and 9.3 rebounds, enough to lead the team in both categories, and maybe enough to lead the Lady Bears to a national championship.
Road to the Final Four: Baylor has had arguably the toughest tournament trip, consistently facing the highest-ranked teams of the four and coming up with decisive victories at each stop. Wins over Illinois State (91-70), second-ranked Oregon (69-46), third-ranked Minnesota (64-57) and top seed UNC (72-63) make Baylor a serious challenger to the season-long favorite LSU as the two meet on Sunday at 7:00 p.m.
A new leader: In non-tournament news, Pat Summit became the all-time Div. I wins leader last Tuesday as the Lady Vols brought home No. 880, trampling Purdue 75-54 in the third round of the NCAA tournament. Summit surpassed former North Carolina coach Dean Smith to gain the title, and, like Smith, she earned one of college sports' most prized gifts: the Tennessee Thompson-Boling Arena will now be simply "The Summit."
