TCU women's basketball releases 2005-06 schedule
8/17/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Aug. 17, 2005
Complete Release and Schedule in PDF Format
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FORT WORTH, Texas -- TCU Women's Basketball Head Coach Jeff Mittie announced his program's schedule for the 2005-06 academic year Wednesday. Twenty-seven regular-season contests await the Lady Frogs, 16 of which come against teams from the Mountain West Conference. The 2005-06 season marks TCU's initial year with the MWC.
Ten of TCU's 27 games will be against teams that played in the 2005 NCAA Championship, with another seven coming versus 2005 WNIT squads. In total, 13 of the Lady Frogs' 19 opponents saw postseason action last season.
"This is probably the most challenging schedule we've had in the past five years," Mittie said. "We have great opponents at home and on the road and a challenging neutral site tournament in Cancun. We'll find out very quickly where we are and where we need to be to compete nationally."
The Lady Frogs kick off the season with a pair of exhibition contests Nov. 6 and 12 versus Missouri Western, an NCAA Division II school, and EV1, a traveling professional team based in Houston. Mittie began his coaching career at Missouri Western and earned his undergraduate degree from the school in 1989.
TCU begins the regular season with a home contest Nov. 18 against Long Beach State. Georgia, an NCAA Sweet 16 team in 2005, heads to Cowtown for the Lady Frogs' next game Nov. 21. The Caribbean Classic in Cancun, Mexico, provides TCU with a couple games Nov. 25 and 26 versus Mississippi State and North Carolina. The Tar Heels reached the NCAA Elite Eight last season.
Three NCAA teams are next on the schedule when TCU travels to Oklahoma and Southern California on Nov. 30 and Dec. 4. The Lady Frogs return from Los Angeles for a home match-up in Daniel-Meyer Coliseum with Duke on Dec. 6. Like UNC, the Blue Devils are coming off an Elite Eight appearance.
TCU wraps up the non-conference portion of its slate at SMU on Dec. 20 and home versus Arkansas State, Texas-Arlington and Cornell on Dec. 22 and 30 and Jan. 2. SMU and ASU each participated in the WNIT, while UTA made its first NCAA showing in school history last year.
The Purple and White begins MWC play at Wyoming on Jan. 7. In the Mountain West, each team plays the other eight at home and on the road during the regular season. TCU's other conference tilts come against Air Force, BYU, Colorado State, New Mexico, San Diego State, UNLV and Utah.
"The conference portion of the schedule will be the first time in five years that we have played home and away with every opponent," Mittie said. "This is the preferred way to determine a regular-season championship. With the potential to play a team three times, rivalries will be established quickly."
Three of TCU's 16 MWC games are televised, beginning with the Feb. 2 contest at UNLV. The Lady Frogs battle the UNM Lobos on Feb. 12 in Albuquerque, N.M., on ESPN2 and play their penultimate regular-season game at Utah on March 2 on CSTV. The TCU-Utah match-up will be shown tape delayed.
The Mountain West Conference Women's Basketball Championship takes place over March 7-11 in Denver at the Pepsi Center. NCAA play begins March 18 and concludes with the Final Four on April 2 and 4 at Boston's TD Banknorth Garden.
TCU is coming off its fifth consecutive 20-win season, having gone 23-10 in 2004-05. The Lady Frogs won the Conference USA Tournament for the second time in the past three seasons and made their fifth straight showing in the NCAA Championship.
For more information on the schedule, please see the above PDF file.
