Get ready for another exciting C-USA postseason. Regular season and C-USA Tournament champion Houston, which received the highest seed in league history with a No. 3 ranking, joins DePaul, Marquette and TCU in this year's NCAA's. Charlotte, Cincinnati, Louisville, Memphis and USF will each participate in the 32-team WNIT field, which opens play on Wednesday.

THE 20-WIN CLUB
For the first time in C-USA history, the league has six teams with 20-plus win records. Houston (27-3), TCU (24-6), Louisville (20-9), DePaul (22-6), Memphis (20-9) and Marquette (21-8) have all reached the 20-plus win plateau this season. As of March 15, Conference USA, the Big 12 and the Big East are the only leagues in the nation with six schools that have posted 20-plus win seasons.

THE BIG DANCE
Four Conference USA women's basketball teams have received invitations to the NCAA Tournament. Regular season and C-USA Tournament champion Houston, which received the highest seed in league history with a No. 3 ranking, joins DePaul, Marquette and TCU in this year's NCAA's.

Houston (27-3) will be competing in its first NCAA Tournament since the 1991-92 season after winning the regular season Conference USA crown and tournament title. The Cougars are the No. 3 seed in the East Region and will face 14th-seeded UW-Green Bay (23-7) in Santa Barbara, Calif. on Saturday, March 20.

C-USA Coach of the Year Joe Curl has led Houston to its highest win total in school history with 27, while also tying the league mark for the most victories. In addition, the Cougars claimed their best record ever in C-USA play with a 13-1 conference mark, while earning the highest ranking in conference history with a No. 10 showing in this week's ESPN/USA Today/WBCA Coaches Poll. The Cougars, who have won a school-record 12 consecutive games heading into the Big Dance, become the 11th different school to reach the NCAA Tournament in Conference USA's first nine seasons.

DePaul will be making its second consecutive and ninth overall appearance in the NCAA Tournament. The Blue Demons are the No. 9 seed in the Midwest region and will take on eighth-seeded George Washington (22-7) in the opening round on Saturday in Tallahassee, Fla. With a 22-6 mark, DePaul has posted its ninth 20-plus win season under head coach Doug Bruno. If the Blue Demons advance to the second round, they will face either No. 1 Tennessee or 16th-seeded Colgate. Earlier in the season, DePaul nearly claimed an upset over the Volunteers, falling 96-89 in overtime on Dec. 17.

Marquette advances to the NCAA Tournament for the seventh time in school history, while also marking its first appearance since the 2000 tourney. The Golden Eagles earned the No. 9 seed in the Mideast region and will open against eighth-seeded Old Dominion (25-6) on Sunday in Durham, N.C. Marquette claimed its seventh 20-plus win season and fifth under head coach Terri Mitchell's helm after posting a 21-9 mark. The Golden Eagles are also only one win away from tying the most victories in school history with 22.

TCU earned its fourth straight NCAA berth after posting a 24-6 overall record and finishing second in the C-USA standings with an 11-3 record. The Horned Frogs earned their highest seed ever in the NCAA Tournament and will take on 11th-seeded Temple (21-9) in the West Region on Saturday, in Philadelphia, Pa. The last three years, TCU has advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, becoming the first school in C-USA to claim this feat.

With four bids, Conference USA is surpassed only by the Big East (8), SEC (7), Big 12 (7) and Big Ten (6) in the total number of NCAA teams in this year's field. The ACC also received four berths. The league has now earned a total of 34 NCAA appearances in its nine-year history.

2004 WNIT
Five Conference USA schools, more than any other league, will take part in the 2004 Women's National Invitation Tournament. Charlotte, Cincinnati, Louisville, Memphis and USF will each participate in the 32-team field, which opens play on Wednesday. The five WNIT teams are the most ever in one season for C-USA and it gives the league an all-time best nine women's basketball teams in postseason play.

Charlotte will be making its second straight postseason appearance and first WNIT trip since the 1989-90 season. The 49ers, who enter the WNIT with a 16-13 overall record, will play at Clemson (17-11) on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. EST.

Louisville will host Western Michigan in the first round of the WNIT on Thursday, March 18 in Cardinal Arena. A game time has not been set. The Cardinals enter the game with an overall record of 20-9 and finished tied for second in the league with TCU. U of L has won nine of its last 10 games, while also posting a school record-tying streak of 12 consecutive wins during the regular season. Western Michigan has an overall record of 17-11 and finished with an 11-5 record in the MAC Conference.

This is the third appearance in the WNIT for the Cardinals and their first time to host the event. The last time the Cardinals appeared in the WNIT was during the 2002 season. Louisville lost in the first round at Ball State. The winner of the Louisville-Western Michigan contest will face the winner of the Charlotte/Clemson matchup in the second round.

Memphis is back in postseason play for the first time since receiving a bid to the 2000 WNIT. The Tigers will host future Conference USA member Tulsa on Thursday at 7 p.m. Memphis is 20-9 and has achieved its first 20-plus victory season since the 1998-99 campaign, when the Tigers finished 22-10. Tulsa enters the WNIT with a 19-11 record, finishing 11-7 in Western Athletic Conference play.

Cincinnati has extended its string of consecutive postseason appearances to seven, the longest current streak in Conference USA. The Bearcats will be participating in the WNIT for the fourth time since 1998 when they travel to Western Kentucky for a game on Friday. The Hilltoppers are 18-13 on the year and reached the championship game of the Sun Belt Tournament.

The winner of the Memphis-Tulsa contest is paired up to play the winner of the Cincinnati/Western Kentucky matchup in the second round.

USF (15-15) will be making the first postseason appearance in school history. The Bulls will hit the road to face Richmond in the first round on Thursday, March 18 at 7 p.m. The Spiders come into the WNIT with a 20-9 record and finished second in the West Division of the Atlantic 10 Conference. The winner of that game will face the winner of the Florida State-South Alabama game.

All rounds of play in the 32-team field are played at campus sites. Second Round play takes place from March 19-22 and quarterfinal action is set for March 24-25. The championship game will be played on March 30, April 1st or 2nd.

HOUSTON WINS 2004 C-USA TOURNAMENT
In front of a tournament record crowd of 4,387, CHANDI JONES posted 36 points to lead the Houston Cougars to their first Conference USA Tournament title after defeating second-seeded TCU, 86-75, on March 7 at the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.

The Cougars become only the second school in league history to win outright the regular season crown and tournament title in one season. Memphis also claimed the conference's regular season and tourney titles during the 1997-98 season. .

Jones earned Tournament MVP honors after averaging 27 points per game during the tournament, ranking second in the C-USA Tourney record book. Also named to the All-Tournament team was Lyttle, Cincinnati's VALERIE KING and TCU's NATASHA LACY and SANDORA IRVIN.

DID YOU KNOW?
Conference USA has produced an all-time high of 17 postseason basketball teams (6 NCAA Men, 4 NCAA Women, 2 NIT, 5 WNIT). Only the Big East with 19 (6 NCAA Men, 8 NCAA women, 4 NIT and 1 WNIT) and the Big 12 with 18 (4 NCAA Men, 7 NCAA Women, 5 NIT and 2 WNIT) have produced more postseason basketball teams this March.

HIGHEST RANKING EVER
With a No. 10 showing in the latest ESPN/USA Today/WBCA Coaches Poll, Houston has earned the highest ranking in C-USA history. The Cougars surpassed the former ranking of 11th, which they earned in last week's Associated Press poll, while DePaul was also ranked No. 11 in the Feb. 16 ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll.

COUGARS' WINNING WAYS
With a 27-3 overall mark, Houston tied the C-USA record for the most overall victories in a season. Cincinnati posted a 27-5 record in 2002, while Tulane also went 27-5 during the 1999-00 and 1996-97 seasons.

RECORD YEAR FOR C-USA
- For the first time in C-USA history, three league schools were ranked in the polls. On Jan. 11, TCU was No. 17, while DePaul was ranked 18 and Houston placed No. 25 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches poll. The following week, all three schools also earned top 25 rankings in the Associated Press poll. A month later, the Cougars earned the highest ranking in C-USA history with a No. 10 spot.

- Houston's CHANDI JONES became the first player in C-USA annals to be named Player of the Year for three consecutive years.

- With a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament, the Cougars earned the highest seed in league history. In the 1997 NCAA Championship, Tulane was seeded fourth.

- Five league schools earned WNIT bids, tying the league's record for most teams in the tourney. Conference USA also had five teams earn berths to the 2001 WNIT (DePaul, Cincinnati, Houston, Memphis and UAB).

RECORD BREAKING ATTENDANCE
The 2004 C-USA Tournament will go down in the record books as the most attended tourney in C-USA women's basketball history. The total attendance for the 11 games was 22,031, breaking the former mark of 10,966 set at the 2002 C-USA Tournament at the DePaul Athletic Center.

The championship game also drew a record crowd for the tournament. Attendance for the game was 4,387, surpassing the old mark of 3,069 established at the 1999 C-USA Championship game (Cincinnati vs. Tulane).

COACHING MILESTONES
With a 74-70 victory over DePaul in the C-USA Tournament on March 5, Marquette's TERRI MITCHELL claimed her 150th victory at the Golden Eagle helm. Mitchell has compiled a 150-49 record in her eight seasons at MU. Houston's head coach JOE CURL is only one win away from compiling his 100th all-time victory at the Cougar helm. Currently, Curl is 99-80 in six seasons at UH.

FOR THE RECORD BOOK
Several tourney records were broken during the 2004 C-USA Tournament. Charlotte's SAKELLIE DANIELS set a tournament record for free throws made (14) and free throws attempted (18) in the 49ers' 74-61 victory over East Carolina.

In the quarterfinal rounds, Cincinnati's VALERIE KING went 7-of-12 from the three-point arc against Houston, breaking the old tournament record of six treys.

TCU's SANDORA IRVIN established a new tournament mark with eight blocks against Charlotte last Friday. She broke her previous record of six set against Charlotte on March 8, 2003. As a team, the Horned Frogs finished with 11 total blocks also breaking the team tournament record of 7.

AROUND C-USA...

CHARLOTTE (16-13, 8-6 C-USA)
Charlotte heads into the postseason with a 16-13 record and will face Clemson in the first round of the WNIT on Wednesday. The 49ers, assured of a winning record for the third year in a row, were seventh in Conference USA with an 8-6 record this season. Clemson is 17-10 overall, while posting a 7-9 mark in ACC play. This is the second-straight trip to the postseason for Charlotte. Last season, the 49ers earned the program's first berth ever for the NCAA Tournament. It is also the team's second appearance in the WNIT. The first trip came in 1990, when the team finished third.

CINCINNATI (15-15, 5-9 C-USA)
Cincinnati will face Western Kentucky in the first round of the WNIT on Friday. This is the seventh straight postseason bid for the Bearcats and fourth trip to the WNIT since 1998. The Hilltoppers are 18-13 on the year and reached the championship game of the Sun Belt Tournament. The Bearcats are 1-5 all-time against WKU, but have not faced the hilltoppers since 1987. VALERIE KING became C-USA's all-time three-point leader during the C-USA Tournament. She currently has 335 and ranks fourth in Division I history. King, the second-leading scorer in UC history and fifth in C-USA, also became the only player in C-USA annals to be named to four all-tournament teams.

DE PAUL (22-6, 10-4 C-USA)
The Blue Demons earned the No. 9 seed and will be playing eighth-seeded George Washington in Tallahassee, Fla., on Saturday. The winner moves on to a second-round matchup against the No. 1 Tennessee-No. 16 Colgate game on Monday. DePaul enters the NCAA Tournament with a 22-6 record having lost their last four games. The club has led the nation in scoring since the start of this season and features four players averaging in double-figures. KHARA SMITH leads the way with 20.8 points and 11.9 rebounds and is joined by CHARLENE SMITH at 17.5 points, JENNI DANT with 14.3 points and ASHLEY LUKE at 12.7 points per game.

EAST CAROLINA (14-14, 5-9 C-USA)
East Carolina suffered a 74-61 loss to Charlotte in the first round of the C-USA Tournament to conclude the 2003-04 season with a 14-14 record. The Pirates were paced in scoring by ALISHA BISHOP with 16 and KEISHA ANTHONY with 15. A total of 37 of ECU's 61 points came from their bench. The Pirates were hampered by an ankle injury to leading scorer COURTNEY WILLIS in the first half. The first team All-C-USA selection was limited to five minutes and was held to three points.

HOUSTON (27-3, 13-1 C-USA)
Houston will take on 14th- seeded Wisconsin-Green Bay in Santa Barbara, Calif. on Saturday. This will be the first trip to the NCAA Tournament for the Cougars since 1992. Houston's last trip to the Big Dance took them to Santa Barbara where they were knocked out in the first round by UC-Santa Barbara, 80-69. UW-Green Bay (23-7) won the Horizon League Tournament to gain the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The postseason berth marks the third straight NCAA tournament bid and sixth in the past seven seasons for UW-Green Bay.

LOUISVILLE (20-9, 11-3 C-USA)
The Cardinals will host Western Michigan in the first round of the WNIT on Thursday in Cardinal Arena. Louisville enters the game with an overall record of 20-9 and finished tied for second in the league with TCU. Western Michigan has an overall record of 17-11 and finished with an 11-5 record in the MAC Conference. This is the third appearance in the WNIT for the Cardinals and their first time to host the event. The last time the Cardinals appeared in the WNIT was during the 2002 season. Louisville lost in the first round at Ball State.

MARQUETTE (21-9, 9-5 C-USA)
Marquette will take on eighth-seeded Old Dominion in the first round, in Durham, N.C. on Sunday. It marks MU's seventh NCAA Tournament appearance, fifth under head coach TERRI MITCHELL. This will also be the Golden Eagles' second trip to Durham for an NCAA match-up, having lost to Western Kentucky in the first round of the 2000 NCAA Tournament. If Marquette advances to the second round, the squad will face either top seed and host Duke or Northwestern State.

MEMPHIS (20-9, 9-5 C-USA)
Memphis will host Tulsa on Friday in the first round of the WNIT. It marks the fourth trip to the WNIT for the Tigers. Memphis reached the Final Four of the tournament in 1999, falling to Wisconsin, 92-73 in the semifinals. The Tigers are 20-9 and have reached their first 20-plus victory season since the 1998-99 season when Memphis finished 22-10. The Tigers, who were picked ninth in the preseason coaches poll, have improved their win total by seven games from last year's record of 13-15.

SAINT LOUIS (8-19, 2-12 C-USA)
The Billikens end their season with an 8-19 overall record and 2-12 conference mark. Senior ANGIE LEWIS was named to the All-Conference third team. She finished the 2003-04 season with 485 points, the second-highest single-season total in school history, and averaged 18 points and 7.0 rebounds this year. She also broke the record for field goals made in a season with 194. Lewis scored 32 points against East Carolina, the second-highest single-game total in school history and was the first player at SLU to score at least 30 points in a game three times in one season. Lewis tallied 1,300 points in her career, the sixth-best total in school history, and her 659 rebounds ranks sixth on the rebounding chart.

USF (14-14, 7-7 C-USA)
For the first time since the 1978-79 season, USF will advance into postseason play as the Bulls face Richmond in the first round of the WNIT on Thursday. The Bulls' last appearance in the postseason was during the 1978-79 campaign when they took part in the Florida Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) State Tournament. USF went 1-2, ending the season with an 86-85 loss to Miami (Fla.). in the double elimination event. The Bulls have been led all season by the freshmen tandem of JESSICA DICKSON and NALINI MILLER. Dickson has led USF in scoring averaging 18.8 points per game in her short 28-game career. She is currently the top-scoring freshman in America and was named the Conference USA Freshman of the Year for her efforts. Miller, who also joined Dickson on the C-USA All-Freshman team, is second on the team in scoring grabbing 10.7 points per contest and paces the team on the glass, grabbing 7.7 per outing.

SOUTHERN MISS (14-13, 2-12 C-USA)
Southern Miss ended its season with a 65-51 loss at Tulane on Friday. The Golden Eagles finished with a 14-13 record and 2-12 in league play, losing its last eight games. Freshmen DEONDRA CARTER and MICHELLE POINDEXTER were Southern Miss' top scorers. Carter led the squad with 12.9 points per game, while Poindexter finished with 9.8 ppg. Carter was named to the All-Freshmen team, becoming the first Eagle to receive the honor since the 1996-97 season. She played in all 26 games and started 23 contests. She averaged 13.1 points and 4.5 rebounds against C-USA teams.

TCU (24-6, 11-3 C-USA)
TCU snagged a No. 6 seed for the NCAA Tournament, the highest in school history, and will faced No. 11-seeded Temple in the first round of the tourney on Saturday in Philadelphia, Pa. The Frogs are making their fourth consecutive appearance in the event and its first in the West Region. In the previous three NCAA Tournaments, TCU was sent to the East Region. Should the Lady Frogs advance, they would face the winner of No. 3-seeded Georgia and No. 14 Liberty on March 22. Only 21 teams boast the distinction of making the NCAA Tournament the past four years. In addition to TCU, Austin Peay, Colorado, Connecticut, Duke, Georgia, Liberty, Louisiana Tech, LSU, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Old Dominion, Penn State, Purdue, Stanford, Tennessee, Texas, Texas Tech, UC Santa Barbara, Vanderbilt and Villanova have accomplished the feat.

TULANE (10-18, 3-11 C-USA)
Tulane suffered a 61-44 loss to Marquette in the first round of the C-USA Tournament to conclude its season with a 10-18 overall mark. The Green Wave were paced in scoring by D'AUNDRA HENRY with 13 points and LAKETHIA HAMPTON with 12. Hampton also tied for the team high with six rebounds. The Green Wave closed out the 2003-04 season at the C-USA Tourney, ending a nine-year run of trips to the NCAA Championship.

UAB (9-19, 3-11 C-USA)
UAB concluded the 2003-04 season with a first round loss to Memphis, 64-54, at the C-USA Tournament. Senior NATASHA THOMAS added another milestone to her outstanding career, as she tallied the 1,000th rebound of her collegiate run. Thomas, who scored 15 points and grabbed nine rebounds Thursday, joined UAB greats, Wanda Hightower and Deanna Jackson as only the third Blazer to record 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in her career. JEANNIE MILLING has been relieved of her position as head coach. In 17 years at UAB, she compiled a record of 265-230. Milling also guided UAB to postseason play on five occasions, including a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances.