Conference USA Tournament champion Cincinnati, C-USA regular season champion TCU and Tulane have earned bids to the 2002 NCAA Tournament Championship.

Cincinnati (26-4) earned the sixth seed in the East Region and will face 11th seeded St. Peter’s on Saturday, March 16 in Columbia, S.C. TCU received the No. 9 seed in the East Region and will face No. 8 seed Indiana on Friday, March 15 in Durham, N.C. Tulane (23-10), making its eighth straight NCAA appearance, is the 10th seed in the West Region and will face seventh seeded Colorado State on Saturday, March 16 in Palo Alto, Calif.

Cincinnati, who is on a school-record 13-game winning streak, captured its first C-USA Tournament title after defeating Tulane, 68-56 in the championship game. This is Cincinnati's third appearance in the NCAA Tournament and marks the highest seed ever for the Bearcats. They will face the Peahens, who won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament title en route to a 25-5 overall record, for the first time in school history. Sophomore Valerie King, earned her second consecutive C-USA All-Conference first-team accolade after becoming the third-fastest player in C-USA history to reach the 1,000-point plateau. She also claimed her second straight MVP honor at the C-USA Tournament, where she averaged 26.7 points per game. The Bearcats are currently ranked No. 22 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll and No. 23 in the Associated Press poll.

TCU captured its first C-USA regular season title after posting a 12-2 conference record in its first year in the league. It marks the second time in school history that the Horned Frogs are heading to the NCAA Tournament. Last year, TCU earned its first bid and upset Penn State, 77-75 in the first round of the 2001 NCAA Tournament. This season, the Frogs are led by C-USA All-Conference Kati Safaritova, who currently is ranked third in the conference with a 41.3 three-point field goal percentage and ninth in the league with 13.1 points per game. Indiana, who won the 2002 Big 10 Tournament title, is 17-13 overall and will meet TCU for the first time in school history. The Frogs are currently rated No. 23 in the Associated Press rankings and No. 25 ESPN/USA Today Coaches’ Poll.

Tulane, who has posted a record of 23-10 this season, will meet Colorado State on Saturday in Stanford’s Maples Pavilion as the first game of the doubleheader in the West Region. This is the second straight season that the Green Wave have earned a No. 10 seed. Last year, the Wave faced No. 7 seed Florida State in the first round in Ames, Iowa, dropping a 72-70 decision to the Seminoles. Tulane is one of just 12 schools to have appeared in each of the last eight NCAA Tournaments. The Rams, 24-6 overall, are ranked 15th in the latest ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll and 18th in the most recent Associated Press listing. Tulane and Colorado State have met twice, with each team winning an in-season tournament game on its own home floor.

The Frogs’ first round round game will be televised on ESPN2 at 5:06 (CST) at the Cameron Indoor Stadium. Cincinnati and Tulane’s game times will be announced on Monday, March 11.



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