http://fullcourt.ehclients.com/ en sharonc@fullcourt.com Copyright 2010 2010-03-17T09:29:15+00:00 http://fullcourt.ehclients.com/index.php/news_articles/view/2010_missouri_valley_conference_tournament_recap_uni_wins_their_first-ever_/ http://fullcourt.ehclients.com/index.php/news_articles/view/2010_missouri_valley_conference_tournament_recap_uni_wins_their_first-ever_/#When:09:29:15Z The Creighton women’s basketball team can be forgiven if they decide to sit out the Missouri Valley Conference tournament in the future.  In the last four seasons, the Bluejays have advanced to the final game three times. They have lost all three championship games, but it how they lost them that has broken their hearts.  They have lost the three games by a combined total of four points, and one of those games went to overtime. Their latest disappointment came at the hands of a surprising University of Northern Iowa team (17-15) who ignored their number-five seed to take the Missouri Valley Tournament title game by a single point, 54-53, and advance to the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history. News, NCAA, Players, NCAA Players, Division I, Missouri Valley Conference, Creighton, Megan Neuvirth, Missouri State 2010-03-17T09:29:15+00:00 http://fullcourt.ehclients.com/index.php/news_articles/view/2010_horizon_league_tournament_wrap_cleveland_state_upsets_the_phoenix_to_h/ http://fullcourt.ehclients.com/index.php/news_articles/view/2010_horizon_league_tournament_wrap_cleveland_state_upsets_the_phoenix_to_h/#When:01:20:19Z The news coming out of most conference tournaments involves who wins.  In the Horizon League women’s basketball, the news is who didn’t win.  Green Bay’s domination of the league has been so long-standing that it is a surprise when they aren’t the team holding the championship trophy at tournament’s end. The Phoenix has won 12 straight regular-season championships, the longest streak in the nation. They have also won nine of the last 11 Horizon League tournament championships.  But, when all was said and done this weekend, it was Cleveland State that was left standing.  For the second time in three years the Vikings were the upset winners of the championship and received the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. News, NCAA, Players, NCAA Players, Division I, Horizon League, Cleveland State, Kailey Klein 2010-03-17T01:20:19+00:00 http://fullcourt.ehclients.com/index.php/news_articles/view/march_madness_2010_scoping_out_the_ncaa_tournament_selections/ http://fullcourt.ehclients.com/index.php/news_articles/view/march_madness_2010_scoping_out_the_ncaa_tournament_selections/#When:21:38:57Z The field is now set, as the final selections, seedings and brackets for the 2010 NCAA Women’s Division I Basketball Tournament were announced Monday night. Sixty-four teams remain to battle for the Championship over the next three weeks. Many story lines have developed since the brackets were revealed. Here, we’ll address just a few of them:  Which teams were included and excluded and why? What are the toughest regions? What are the best first and second-round games? Who are the most likely teams to make it to San Antonio. News, NCAA 2010-03-16T21:38:57+00:00 http://fullcourt.ehclients.com/index.php/news_articles/view/full_court_top_25_week_of_march_15_2010/ http://fullcourt.ehclients.com/index.php/news_articles/view/full_court_top_25_week_of_march_15_2010/#When:08:48:53Z The regular season is over. 31 teams have already played themselves into the tournament by winning their conference tournaments, and 33 more will be named Monday night as at-large bids. Since this week’s edition of the Full Court Top 25 is being published as the selection announcement is being announced made, we’ll also take a look at how the teams will be seeded,  whom whey will play and where. Here is this week’s Full Court Top 25, all of whom will make the NCAA Tournament. News, NCAA, Players, NCAA Players, Division I, America East, Hartford, University of Vermont, Atlantic 10, Xavier, Atlantic Coast Conference, Duke University, Atlantic Sun, East Tennessee State, Big 12, Baylor, Brittney Griner, Melissa Jones, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas , Texas A&M, Big East Conference, Notre Dame, University of Connecticut, Big Sky, Portland State, Big Ten Conference, Ohio State, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Marist, Mid-American Conference, Bowling Green State, Mountain West, San Diego State, Texas Christian University, PAC-10 Conference, Stanford, UCLA, South Eastern Conference, University of Tennessee, Southern Conference, University of Tennessee - Chattanooga, Summit League, South Dakota State, Sun Belt Conference, Middle Tennessee State, West Coast Conference, Gonzaga, Western Athletic Conference, Fresno State, Louisiana Tech 2010-03-16T08:48:53+00:00 http://fullcourt.ehclients.com/index.php/news_articles/view/2010_big_12_tournament_recap_aggies_win_title_ending_nebraskas_undefeated_s/ http://fullcourt.ehclients.com/index.php/news_articles/view/2010_big_12_tournament_recap_aggies_win_title_ending_nebraskas_undefeated_s/#When:22:07:43Z Winning the Big 12’s automatic bid and making a strong case for a No. 2 seed in the upcoming NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, Texas A&M ground out their second Big 12 Tournament Championship in the last three years with a 74-67 win over third-seeded Oklahoma. Kansas City, Missouri, must appeal to the Aggies—both of their recent titles have been won here. “Kansas City has been good to me,” said Aggie Coach Gary Blair after collecting the tournament trophy. “I always eat very well here and our team has played well here.” Perhaps the biggest news of the tournament, however, was not the ultimate outcome of the title game, but the stops along the way. Blair’s Aggies, ranked No. 12 in the nation heading into the tournament, defeated three nationally ranked teams en route to the championship, taking down No. 14 Texas and No. 3 Nebraska. as well as No. 8 Oklahoma.  And no win was bigger than the 80-70 semifinal victory that ended the storybook season of previously undefeated Nebraska. Of course, the Cornhuskers’ season itself is not over; indeed, they may still wind up with a No. 1 seed when the NCAA tournament brackets are announced Monday evening. Nebraska had been on the road to becoming just the 12th team in history to make it into the NCAA tournament unbeaten. But the ‘Huskers’ record-breaking winning streak has now been capped at 30, much to the dismay of sportswriters looking for some story line other than the juggernaut that is UConn, now the only unbeaten team in the country at 33-0. Aggie power forward Danielle Adams, who put up 22 points in the win over Nebraska and another 19 (plus seven boards) in the championship game against Oklahoma, earned well-deserved recognition as the Big 12 Tournament MVP. Let’s take a look at the road to the championship. News, NCAA, Players, NCAA Players, Division I, Big 12, Baylor, Brittney Griner, Melissa Jones, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas , Texas A&M 2010-03-15T22:07:43+00:00 http://fullcourt.ehclients.com/index.php/news_articles/view/thirty-one_teams_breathe_easy_on_selection_monday_with_ncaa_tickets_already/ http://fullcourt.ehclients.com/index.php/news_articles/view/thirty-one_teams_breathe_easy_on_selection_monday_with_ncaa_tickets_already/#When:07:56:07Z Thirty-one teams from around the country will be breathing easy when the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Selection Committee takes to the air Monday evening to announce the brackets for this year’s Big Dance. Ranging from undefeated and top-ranked Connecticut, the odds-on favorite to win it all, to lowly Portland State, the Big Sky conference tournament champions, who boast an 18-14 record but against competition so weak that their Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) is an astronomical 215, these schools have all punched their tickets by winning their conference tournament championships over the last seven days. (Princeton, the representative of the Ivy League which does not hold a conference tournament, had a perfect conference season to take the automatic bid as the Ivy’s regular-season champs.) Meanwhile, the Selection Committee has been sequestered since Thursday in an Indianapolis hotel, charged with the task of picking the 34 next most worthy teams out of a field of more than 300 remaining women’s basketball programs. Players and coaches from these schools, many of whom had sensational seasons but didn’t manage to leave their conference tourneys with the trophies in hand, can do nothing now but sit and wait until the Committee’s verdict is announced Monday night in the Selection Show that will be broadcast nationally at 7 p.m. Eastern on ESPN. Of course, members of some of these teams got more sleep last night than others. Few are willing to uncross their fingers until its official. On Saturday, even Tara VanDerveer, head coach of a 31-1 Stanford program that has held the No. 2 spot in the national rankings all season, modestly hedged her bets. “I don’t want to say we’re a lock,” she told a room full of reporters. Though she confessed to thinking her team was in pretty good shape, it was not until Stanford had wrapped up the Pac-10 tournament championship the following day that she finally said, “Well, now I don’t have to worry any more.” And so it is for 24 of the nation’s top teams who did take home the hardware over the last two weekends. These are the teams that Full Court analyst Jim Carson has identified as “locks” in his four-part “Bubble Wrap” series on this site. The “locks” have amassed records so strong, against top-level competition, that they have very little to worry about, having all but assured themselves a tournament invitation. If Carson’s analysis is anywhere near as spot-on as it was last season, that leaves just 10 at-large bids up for grabs and 21 teams considered to be “on the bubble”—i.e., they have records that make them worthy of serious consideration by the Committee, but all have “warts” that keep them from being viewed as sure things. The good news for these teams is that several of the teams who won their tournament championships were once considered locks for at-large bids. Now that they have wrapped up their conferences’ automatic bids, that leaves those at-large bids available for the bubbles. Read on to see how things stand on the morning of Selection Monday. News, NCAA 2010-03-15T07:56:07+00:00 http://fullcourt.ehclients.com/index.php/news_articles/view/colonial_athletic_association_2010_tournament_recap_james_madison_takes_fir/ http://fullcourt.ehclients.com/index.php/news_articles/view/colonial_athletic_association_2010_tournament_recap_james_madison_takes_fir/#When:05:55:07Z Home court. One game left between the Dukes and an automatic bid to the Big Dance. Naismith and Wooden candidate Dawn Evans. Coming into Sunday’s Colonial Athletic Association championship game, James Madison (25-6) seemed to have everything going for it. Only one thing stood in their way. Old Dominion. Top-seeded Old Dominion (18-12) and No. 2 James Madison clashed for the sixth time in the Colonial Athletic Association final on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. in the JMU Convocation Center, and going into the game, the Lady Monarchs held a 5-0 mark.   The JMU arena, where students taunt every move coach Monarchs’ coach Wendy Larry makes, had been Old Dominion’s nemesis for four straight years. That curse ended when Old Dominion upset the Dukes there on January 17. The Dukes got the last say in the regular season, however, downing the Lady Monarchs in their own Constant Center on February 21. The Lady Monarchs struggled to stop Delaware marvel Elena Delle Donne in Saturday’s semifinals, but had enough to escape the Blue Hens, 50-49. On Sunday, they would not be as lucky, as James Madison romped over the Lady Monarchs, 67-53, to take the CAA championship on their own home floor. News, NCAA, Players, NCAA Players, Division I, Colonial Athletic Conference, James Madison University, Dawn Evans, University of Delaware, Elena Delle Donne 2010-03-15T05:55:07+00:00 http://fullcourt.ehclients.com/index.php/news_articles/view/colonial_athletic_association_tournament_recap_delle_donne_leads_delaware_i/ http://fullcourt.ehclients.com/index.php/news_articles/view/colonial_athletic_association_tournament_recap_delle_donne_leads_delaware_i/#When:09:40:39Z Haven’t seen Elena Delle Donne play? Try to catch the Colonial Athletic Association Player and Freshman of the Year in Saturday’s conference women’s basketball tournament semifinals, which start with top-seed Old Dominion battling fifth-seeded Delaware in a rematch of the 2005 championship. Host James Madison, the tournament second seed, will face Virginia Commonwealth, the third seed, in the second of Saturday’s semifinal. Delle Donne is a marvel who doesn’t get the press of Brittany Griner but is every bit as good if not better than the Baylor freshman. She’s amassed 719 points this season and ranks second in the nation in scoring with 26.9 points per game. She’s the reason the Blue Hens are a contender in a conference where nobody is the hands down favorite to win. News, NCAA, Players, NCAA Players, Division I, Colonial Athletic Conference, Drexel, Gabriela Marginean, James Madison University, Dawn Evans, University of Delaware, Elena Delle Donne 2010-03-13T09:40:39+00:00 http://fullcourt.ehclients.com/index.php/news_articles/view/missouri_valley_conference_tournament_will_illinois_state_dominate_the_leag/ http://fullcourt.ehclients.com/index.php/news_articles/view/missouri_valley_conference_tournament_will_illinois_state_dominate_the_leag/#When:00:34:07Z When the 10 teams of the Missouri Valley Conference took to the floor in St. Charles, Missouri, on Thursday for the league’s postseason tournament, all came with the goal of winning the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. (Obviously, the chances of some to accomplish that objective were materially better than others.) But one team came with an agenda that was somewhat different from those of the nine others The one, Illinois State, will be seeking to take another step toward establishing itself as the dominant program in the league.  The rest of the league will be trying to stop them. The Redbirds won their third straight regular-season championship this year with a 16-2 record in league play (23-6 overall). If they take home the hardware on Sunday, it will be their second tournament title in the past three years. They’re already half-way there, having sat out Thursday’s preliminary round games thanks to the bye they earned in regular-season play, and having beaten Illinois State, 76-39, in Friday’s quarterfinal. Next up for the Redbirds will be University of Northern Iowa in Saturday’s first semifinal, a game that, at least on paper, should be far more evenly matched. News, NCAA, Players, NCAA Players, Division I, Missouri Valley Conference, Creighton, Megan Neuvirth, Missouri State, Casey Garrison, Whitney Edie 2010-03-13T00:34:07+00:00 http://fullcourt.ehclients.com/index.php/news_articles/view/2010_pac_10_tournament_preview_welcome_to_the_stanford_invitational/ http://fullcourt.ehclients.com/index.php/news_articles/view/2010_pac_10_tournament_preview_welcome_to_the_stanford_invitational/#When:08:10:05Z The Pacific 10 Tournament, also known as the Stanford Invitational, starts March 11 at the Galen Center in Los Angeles. Stanford is the prohibitive favorite to win its seventh title in the Tournament’s nine-year history. Stanford, the top seed having run the conference table (18-0) in the regular season with a 28-1 season record overall, is 22-2 in Pac-10 tournament play and has made the finals every year. Its only two losses came in 2002 against Arizona State and in 2006 against UCLA, in overtime. This year should be no different as Stanford has perhaps its best team since 1998 while the rest of the conference has struggled throughout the season. Absent a major upset in Los Angeles this weekend, the Pac 10 will probably receive three bids to the NCAA Tournament. Along with Stanford, UCLA and USC should both receive invitations, but USC must make sure to take care of business against Oregon to remove any doubt. California, Arizona State and Oregon all had opportunities to make a case for a bid in the last few weeks but came up short, and would have to at least beat Stanford to have any chance of an invite. News, NCAA, Players, NCAA Players, Division I, PAC-10 Conference, Stanford, Nnemkadi Ogwumike, UCLA, Jasmine Dixon 2010-03-12T08:10:05+00:00