For just the second time in league history, five Conference USA women's basketball teams have received invitations to the NCAA Tournament. Charlotte, Cincinnati, DePaul, TCU and Tulane will represent C-USA in the NCAA's, with Cincinnati hosting first and second round games. Marquette and Saint Louis will participate in the WNIT. Get ready for postseason play by reading the women's basketball notebook.


FIVE C-USA TEAMS TO THE BIG DANCE
For just the second time in league history, five Conference USA women's basketball teams have received invitations to the NCAA Tournament. Regular season champion Charlotte and C-USA Tournament champion TCU are joined by Cincinnati, DePaul and Tulane in this year's NCAA's. It marks the first time since the 1996-97 season that the league has produced five NCAA teams in the same season and the five bids give the league an eight-year total of 30 NCAA teams.

Charlotte (21-6) will be making its first-ever NCAA appearance after winning the regular season Conference USA title with a 14-2 league record. The 49ers are the No. 12 seed in the Midwest Region and will face fifth-seeded Georgia in Athens, Ga., on Saturday. C-USA Coach of the Year Katie Meier has led Charlotte to its first NCAA Tournament in just her second season at the helm. The 49ers only other postseason appearance came in 1990, when they participated in the WNIT. Charlotte becomes the 10th different school to reach the NCAA Tournament in Conference USA's first eight seasons.

Cincinnati will become the first Conference USA school to play on its home floor in the NCAA Tournament when the 10th-seeded Bearcats take on No. 7 seed Arkansas at Shoemaker Center on Sunday. This will be UC's fourth trip to the NCAA Tournament and the sixth-straight postseason bid overall. The Bearcats previously reached the NCAA's in 1989, 1999 and 2002. Last year, UC earned its first win in the tournament. Cincinnati is 23-7 this year and finished second in both the Conference USA regular season and tournament. The Bearcats went 4-4 this year against teams in the field.

DePaul will be making its eighth appearance in the NCAA Tournament and its first since 1997. The Blue Demons are the No. 9 seed in the Midwest Region and will face No. 8 seed Utah in the opening round on Sunday in Raleigh, N.C. With a 22-9 record, DePaul has posted its highest victory total since the 1989-90 season. Included were victories over nationally-ranked non-conference foes Notre Dame and George Washington.

TCU earned its third straight NCAA berth by winning the Conference USA Tournament in Memphis. The ninth-seeded Horned Frogs will be facing a Big Ten team in the opening round for the third straight year when they take on No. 8 seed Michigan State on Sunday in Storrs, Conn. Last season, TCU defeated Indiana in the first round after beating Penn State in 2001 for its first-ever NCAA victory.

Tulane will make its second consecutive trip to Palo Alto, Calif., as the Green Wave will face Minnesota in the first round at Stanford's Maples Pavilion on Saturday. Last year, the Green Wave upset No. 7 seed Colorado State in the first round before falling to host Stanford in the Round of 32. Tulane, which has posted a record of 19-9, earned the No. 11 seed in the West Region and will face the No. 6 seeded Golden Gophers who are ranked 15th in the latest Associated Press poll and 18th in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll. Tulane is one of just 11 teams to appear in the last nine NCAA Tournaments.

DID YOU KNOW?
With five bids, Conference USA is surpassed only by the Big East (7), SEC (7) and Big Ten (6) in the total number of NCAA teams in this year's field. The Big 12 also placed five teams in the tournament.


C-USA IN THE WNIT
Marquette and Saint Louis have been chosen to participate in the 2003 Women's National Invitation Tournament. Marquette will play Toledo, while Saint Louis will visit Iowa. The Golden Eagles are back in postseason play for the first time since receiving an at-large bid to the 2000 NCAA Tournament. Saint Louis is making the first postseason appearance in school history.

The Golden Eagles (15-13) will play on Thursday, March 20 at Toledo. Game time has yet to be announced. Toledo, the regular season champion of the Mid-American Conference, sits at 20-9 after falling in the semifinals of the MAC Tournament. Marquette will face a Rockets team that was 12-1 at home this season. However, Marquette posted a 10-6 record away from Milwaukee this season.

This is the eighth post-season bid for the Golden Eagles, the fifth under head coach Terri Mitchell. This is MU's second appearance in the WNIT. Marquette last played in the National Women's Invitation Tournament in the 1992-93 season. The Golden Eagles were 1-2 in that event when it was an eight-team field that was played in Amarillo, Texas.

The Billikens (17-13) visit Iowa on Thursday, March 20 for a 7:00 p.m. game. SLU has recorded its highest victory total in eight seasons under head coach Jill Pizzotti, finishing with 17 wins. The school record for victories in a season is 18, set in 1978-79 and duplicated in 1979-80. SLU won a school-record eight league games this season, breaking the previous high of six.

Iowa was 16-14 this season and posted a 6-10 mark in the Big Ten. This will be the first meeting between the schools.

The winner of the Marquette-Toledo game will face the winner of the Saint Louis-Iowa matchup in the second round on March 22nd, 23rd or 24th. All rounds of play in the 32-team field are played at campus sites. The championship game will be played on April 2nd, 3rd or 4th.

TCU CLINCHES FIRST-EVER C-USA TOURNAMENT TITLE
TCU, who was seeded fifth, became the lowest seed in league history to win the C-USA Tournament title, defeating Cincinnati, 85-76, in overtime on March 9 at The Pyramid in Memphis. SANDORA IRVIN, who was named the tourney MVP, scored a game-high 26 points and grabbed a career-high 19 rebounds to lead the Horned Frogs. All-Tournament honoree CANDACE BALDWIN followed with 18, while TIFFANY EVANS added 12 points and eight rebounds. Cincinnati's VALERIE KING, DEBBIE MERRILL and K.B. SHARP also earned C-USA All-Tournament accolades. The Horned Frogs became the fourth different school to capture the C-USA Tourney crown. Cincinnati (2002), Tulane (2001, 2000, 1999, 1997) and Memphis (1998, 1996) have won the previous titles.

CHARLOTTE CAPTURES FIRST-EVER
CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP
With an 86-80 victory over Tulane on March 2, the Charlotte 49ers captured their first Conference USA regular season championship. Charlotte solidified sole possession of the title, after Cincinnati, who was tied with the 49ers with an 11-2 conference mark heading into the last game of the regular season, was upset by Saint Louis, 69-63.

WBCA REGION 4 COACH OF THE YEAR
Charlotte's KATIE MEIER has been named Regional Coach of the Year for Region 4 by Russell Athletic and the Women's Basketball Coaches Association. As Regional Coach of the Year, Meier is a finalist for National Coach of the Year honors. The team won its first ever Conference USA regular-season title, going 12-2 in league play after being picked to finish sixth in the preseason. The Niners' turnaround has been remarkable, considering that seven of the 13 players are new to the program. The team includes just one senior and features five freshmen. To date, the 49ers have started two freshmen and a sophomore 28 times and have started three freshmen and a sophomore 16 times.

COLLEN NAMED U OF L HEAD COACH
TOM COLLEN, who won nearly 80 percent of his games in five seasons as head coach at Colorado State, has been named as the women's basketball coach at Louisville. Collen returns to coaching after a year hiatus, serving as a coaching consultant, coaching clinician and television color commentator this past season. While at Colorado State, he compiled an impressive 129-33 (.796) record in his five seasons with the Rams. Collen served as the head coach of the Rams from 1997-2002. His 1998-99 squad finished with a 33-3 record and an appearance in the NCAA Sweet Sixteen. In his five seasons at CSU, the Rams made five postseason appearances, four NCAA Tournament appearances and his 1999-2000 squad advanced to the semifinals of the WNIT. The Rams were WAC regular season champions in 1998 and 1999. In 2001, they were crowned Mountain West Tournament Champions and were 2002 Mountain West Regular Season Champions. Collen's winning percentage ranks fourth in the nation behind Leon Barmore, Pat Summit and Geno Auriemma. His winning percentage is tops among coaches with 5-10 years experience.

1996-97 SEASON FLASHBACK
During the 2002-03 campaign, there have been several similarities of the 1996-1997 C-USA season.
- During the 1996-97 season, league teams posted the most wins over nationally ranked non-conference opponents in a season. This year, the conference tied this record.
- In the month of December 1996, C-USA teams upset two Top-10 opponents. This past December, the league also had two wins over Top-10 opponents - DePaul defeated No. 8 Notre Dame, 75-69, on Dec. 11. TCU notched a 70-53 win over No. 8 Vanderbilt, 70-53, on Dec. 28.
- During the 1997 postseason, C-USA had five teams earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament, the most in league history. This season, the league also had five teams earn NCAA berths.

THE 20-WIN CLUB
With a 21-8 record, Charlotte becomes the 11th Conference USA school to post 20 or wins in season since the league's inception in 1995. The 49ers are joined by Cincinnati, DePaul, Houston, Louisville, Marquette, Memphis, Southern Miss, TCU, Tulane and UAB in accomplishing this feat.

FRESHMEN LEADERS
Several of the top newcomers have made their presence noticed this season. Currently, DePaul's KHARA SMITH, who was redshirted last season, leads the freshmen class in scoring (13.4 pg) and rebounding (8.1 pg). Marquette's CAROLYN KIEGER leads the newcomers with 4.21 assists per game, and ranks second behind Smith in scoring (11.2 pg).

NO SOPHOMORE JINX
This season, two of the top five scorers in C-USA are sophomores. Currently, Cincinnati's DEBBIE MERRILL ranks second with 18.1 points per game, while East Carolina's JENNIFER JACKSON nabbed fourth place with 17.1 points per game. SANDORA IRVIN of TCU leads the second-year class with 9.6 rebounds per game to rank third overall, while Merrill follows in sixth (8.4 rpg).



AROUND C-USA...

CHARLOTTE (21-8, 12-2 C-USA)
Charlotte (21-8) earned its first trip to the NCAA Tournament. The 49ers will face No. 5 seed Georgia in the first round on Saturday in Athens, Ga. The 21 wins are the most for the program since it won 23 in 1990-91. Prior to KATIE MEIER's hiring as head coach, Charlotte had lost 18 games or more for six seasons in a row. This is the team's second-straight winning season under Meier. Last season, the 49ers finished with a 16-13 record. The last time the 49ers put together back-to-back winning seasons was 1992-93 (16-12) and 1993-94 (14-13), nine years ago.

CINCINNATI (23-7, 11-3 C-USA)
Cincinnati earned its fourth NCAA bid and will host No. 7 seed Arkansas on Sunday. The Bearcats will look to rebound against the Razorbacks after UC fell to TCU, 85-76, in overtime at the C-USA Tournament Championship game. It marked only the second time in league history that the finals went into overtime. The Bearcats previously reached the NCAA's in 1989, 1999 and 2002. Last year UC earned its first win in the tournament. Cincinnati is 23-7 this year and finished second in both the Conference USA regular season and tournament. The Bearcats went 4-4 this year against teams in the field and have never played any of the three teams coming to Cincinnati (Texas, Hampton and Arkansas).

DE PAUL (22-9, 10-4 C-USA)
Ninth-seeded DePaul will face No. 8 seed Utah in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday. The Blue Demons will be making its eighth NCAA and 16th postseason appearance in school history, the most by any C-USA program. Head coach DOUG BRUNO is only one win away from becoming the first C-USA coach to reach 300 wins at one school. He currently has a record of 299-197 in 17 years at the Blue Demon helm.

EAST CAROLINA (12-16, 4-10 C-USA)
East Carolina fell to No. 5 TCU, 54-44, in the first round of the C-USA Tournament. JENNIFER JACKSON earned C-USA All-Conference third team honors after leading ECU in points (17.3) and rebounds (7.8) this season. The Pirates finished with a 12-16 overall record under first-year head coach SHARON BALDWIN-TENER, six wins more than last season when East Carolina finished 6-21.

HOUSTON (15-13, 6-8 C-USA)
CHANDI JONES scored 27 points to become Houston's all-time leading scorer as the Cougars dropped a heartbreaker to Southern Miss, 71-69, at the C-USA Tournament. Jones (27.5 ppg), the nation's 2002-03 scoring leader and 2003 C-USA Player of the Year, surpassed Sharion Higgins' 1,957 points to become the school's all-time female scoring leader and fourth on the overall list. SHONDRA BUSH added 15 points and KIKI HARRIS fell just short of a double-double with 12 points and nine rebounds. Collectively, the scoring tandem of Jones and Bush accounted for 42 of Houston's 69 points.

LOUISVILLE (15-14, 5-9 C-USA)
Louisville defeated Saint Louis, 86-59, but fell to DePaul, 66-57, in the quarterfinals of the C-USA Tournament. LORI NERO captured a double-double with 24 points and 11 rebounds against DePaul. In the first round game versus Saint Louis, Nero also set a Conference USA Tournament record for field goal percentage by hitting all nine shots from the field. TOM COLLEN, formerly the Colorado State coach, was named the head coach as MARTIN CLAPP, the head women's basketball coach at Louisville for the past six seasons, resigned his position with the Cardinals.

MARQUETTE (15-13, 6-8 C-USA)
Marquette received a berth in the Women's National Invitation Tournament. This is the eighth post-season bid for the Golden Eagles, the fifth under head coach TERRI MITCHELL. Marquette returns to the post-season for the first time since the 1999-2000 season. This is MU's second appearance in the WNIT. MU played in the Women's National Invitation Tournament in the 1992-93 season. The Golden Eagles were 1-2 in that event when it was an eight-team tournament, played in Amarillo, Texas.


MEMPHIS (13-15, 6-8 C-USA)
The Tigers fell to Marquette, 79-64, in the first round of the C-USA Tournament. Senior SHANNON HAMP kept the Tigers close most of the way, leading all scorers with 20. VICTORIA CRAWFORD added 16 for Memphis. Hamp earned third-team All-Conference honors after leading the Tigers in points (16.1 pg) and rebounds (5.6 pg).

SAINT LOUIS (17-13, 8-6 C-USA)
Saint Louis earned its first postseason tournament bid when it was invited to the 2003 Women's National Invitational Tournament. Saint Louis will travel to Iowa in the first round of the WNIT on Thursday. Game time is 7 p.m. (CST) at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The Billikens finished 17-13 in the regular season and finished tied for fifth in Conference USA with an 8-6 record. The Billikens have recorded their most wins during the Pizzotti era with 17 this year. The school record for wins in a season is 18 set in 1978-79 and duplicated in 1979-80. SLU won a school-record eight league games. The previous best total was six conference wins set by the 1998-99 team and matched last year.

SOUTH FLORIDA (7-20, 2-12 C-USA)
South Florida closed out its 2002-03 season with a 74-57 loss to TCU on March 2. Sophomore ALANA TANKSLEY led USF with 14 points, while senior AIYA SHEPARD finished out her career at USF with 12 points for the game. Junior SARAH LOCHMANN also chipped in 10 points for the Bulls to round out the teams' double-digit scoring. Shepard finishes her four-year career, ranked second on C-USA's all-time career theft list with a total of 306.

SOUTHERN MISS (14-15, 6-8 C-USA)
Southern Miss notched a 71-69 win over Houston, before falling to Cincinnati, 61-42, in the quarterfinals of the C-USA Tournament. DANA JONES scored a career-high 28 points for the Golden Eagles against the Cougars. She followed with a team-high 13 points versus the Bearcats. The Golden Eagles finished the 2002-03 season with a 14-15 overall record.

TCU (19-13, 8-6 C-USA)
TCU earned its third consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament and will take on eight-seeded Michigan State in the first round on Sunday. The Frogs are 2-0 versus Big Ten teams in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, having defeated Penn State, 77-75, in Ruston, La. in 2001, then topping Indiana by a 55-45 count in Durham, N.C., last March. TCU is also in the East Region for the third straight year. The Horned Frogs captured their first C-USA Tournament title with a 85-76 overtime win over Cincinnati on March 9 at the C-USA Tournament in Memphis.

TULANE (19-9, 10-4 C-USA)
Tulane picked up an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, earning its ninth consecutive appearance. The Green Wave are making their second consecutive trip to Palo Alto, Calif., as Tulane will face Minnesota in the first round at Stanford's Maple Pavillion. Last year, the Green Wave upset No. 7 seed Colorado State in the first round before falling to host Stanford in the Round of 32. Tulane, who has posted a record of 19-9 this season, earned the No. 11 seed in the West Region and will face No. 6 seed Minnesota in the first round. Tulane is one of just 11 schools to have appeared in the last nine NCAA Tournaments. This is the first year that the Green Wave has earned a No. 11 seed and Saturday's game will mark Tulane's first-ever match-up against Minnesota.

UAB (8-19, 4-10 C-USA)
UAB ended the 2002-03 season with a 8-19 overall record and 4-10 conference mark. NATASHA THOMAS earned All-Conference honors after leading the conference with 13 double-double performances this season. MICHELLE SMITH also added 11 double-doubles on the year.