Lady Frogs Head to Philadelphia for 2004 NCAA Championship

March 17, 2004

NCAA Media Guide in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader

LADY FROGS' GAME #31:

No. 6-seeded TCU (24-6) vs. No. 11-seeded Temple (21-9)
2004 NCAA Championship West Region First Round
Philadelphia, Pa. * March 20 * 12:30 p.m. CST
The Liacouras Center

TCU STARTERS
#45 Tracy Wynn, 6-2, Sr., F, 7.1 ppg, 4.2 rpg
#50 Sandora Irvin, 6-3, Jr., F, 16.5 ppg, 12.3 rpg
#30 Ebony Shaw, 5-10, Sr., G, 11.2 ppg, 4.3 rpg
#12 Kim Ortega, 5-8, Sr., G, 8.6 ppg, 4.1 rpg
#11 Natasha Lacy, 5-10, Fr., G, 6.9 ppg, 5.3 apg

TCU RESERVES
#23 Tiffany Evans, 6-2, Sr., F, 8.7 ppg, 3.9 rpg
#24 Niki Newton, 6-0, Jr., F, 2.6 ppg, 1.8 rpg
#3 Amy Pack, 6-0, Sr., F, 7.6 ppg, 3.0 rpg
#34 Ashley Davis, 6-0, Fr., F, 5.2 ppg, 1.9 rpg
#33 Adrianne Ross, 5-8, Fr., G, 7.4 ppg, 3.2 apg

TELEVISION COVERAGE
ESPN 2 will televise TCU's first round game with No. 11-seeded Temple at 12:30 p.m. CST. Pam Ward will give the play-by-play call and Kara Lawson will give color commentary.

TCU IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
The 24-6 TCU Lady Frogs snagged a No. 6 seed for the 2004 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship, the highest in school history, and will faced No. 11-seeded Temple in the first round of the tourney March 20 in Philadelphia, Pa., at 12:30 p.m. CST on ESPN 2. The Purple and White is making its fourth consecutive appearance in the event and its first in the West Region. In the previous three NCAA Championships, 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 March 22. Temple University is serving as the host for TCU, Georgia and Liberty at The Liacouras Center, which seats 10,206.

TCU IN NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
In each of the past three championships, the Purple and White has made it to the second round. In TCU's first showing in 2001, the No. 11-seeded Lady Frogs faced heavily favored Penn State, a Final Four team the year before. TCU went on to dispatch the Lady Lions, 77-75, recording the biggest first-round upset of the tourney that year. The Lady Frogs fell in the second round to Louisiana Tech on its home floor by an 80-59 count. The Purple and White took a No. 8 seed into 2002's Big Dance and was pitted against Indiana, who fell, 55-45. TCU made a run at Duke in the second round but could not overcome the Blue Devils in Cameron Indoor Stadium, falling by a 76-66 count. Last season, the Lady Frogs grabbed a nine-seed and faced yet another Big Ten squad, Michigan State, in the opening round. It was not pretty, but TCU pulled out a 50-47 victory. Although the Lady Frogs fell to eventual national champion UConn in the next round, they did give the Huskies more than they expected, exiting the championship on an 81-66 disparity. TCU led at halftime of the contest by a 35-33 count, making it only the sixth team in the past five seasons to hold an advantage at the intermission of a UConn home game.

NOT MUCH HISTORY HERE
TCU and Temple have only met once before in the 1977-78 season and Temple came out on top by a 104-74 count. The Lady Frogs have never played Georgia or Liberty.

WE'RE AMONG ELITE COMPANY
Of the 324 NCAA Division I schools, only 21 can claim that they have been to the NCAA Championship the past four seasons. The Lady Frogs are among them, a list that includes 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. Of those 21, only 12 other teams besides TCU have reached at least the second round of the tournament the previous three years (Colorado, Connecticut, Duke, Louisiana Tech, LSU, Notre Dame, Purdue, Stanford, Tennessee, Texas Tech, Vanderbilt and Villanova).

BEST SEED EVER
With a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Championship this year, TCU earned its highest seeding in school history. The previous best was a No. 8 in 2002 when the Lady Frogs were sent to Durham, N.C., to face No. 9 Indiana.

Schedule