Lady Frog History Rewind: Rollercoaster Season
10/14/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Oct. 14, 2009
With the start of the 2009-10 NCAA basketball season rapidly approaching, GoFrogs.com has decided to take a look back at the last 10 years of TCU women's basketball, the most successful period in school history. Jeff Mittie begins his second decade at the helm of the Lady Frog program this season, so key moments in the team's rise to national prominence will be examined in the coming weeks.
Previous Highlights
Sept. 25 - Frogs Break Through (2000-01)Sept. 29 - New Conference, Same Result (2001-02)
LATE RALLY CAPS ROLLERCOASTER 2002-03 SEASON
TCU entered 2002-03 with big expectations after winning its second-straight conference championship the previous spring in its inaugural season in Conference USA. The rest of the college basketball world seemed to feel the same way of the now flourishing Lady Frog program—TCU earned its highest preseason national ranking in program history prior to the campaign at No. 20 in the ESPN/USA Today Poll.
The Lady Frogs battled through one of the nation's toughest non-conference schedules early on featuring six ranked opponents in 14 games. The team was able to keep its head above water with a 7-6 record before turning its attention to conference play. Included in the early slate was a 70-53 home win over No. 8 Vanderbilt that to this day still ranks as one of head coach Jeff Mittie's biggest wins.
The non-conference season ended with a thud during a nine-point road loss at Santa Clara that snapped a four-game TCU winning streak over teams including over Vanderbilt, Oregon and Miami. The loss began a stretch that would truly test the squad's resolve, as three more road losses to open league play dropped TCU's season record to 7-9.
The Frogs split the following six contests, failing to gain momentum. The final game over that period was a tough road matchup at a traditional college basketball powerhouse—No. 3 Tennessee. Mittie's team fell into a quick hole early in that game, 11-0, but was able to regroup. The Frogs battled back to trail by only one point at intermission before the Volunteers pulled away in the second half for an 86-72 win.
Despite the loss that dropped the team to 10-12 on the season, TCU found that it could compete with any team in the country. It became a turning point for a squad now in serious danger of missing out on postseason play for the first time in three years.
The Frogs responded by doing what good teams do with their backs against the wall—they won. Five wins in six games to end the regular season earned the squad some key momentum entering the Conference USA Tournament, an event the Frogs desperately needed to sweep in order to keep their NCAA Tournament streak alive.
TCU managed to do just that by claiming four victories in four days, including wins over three of the tournament's top-4 seeded teams. The Frogs took down the league's regular-season champion, Charlotte, in the semifinals (78-65), before an exciting 85-76 overtime victory over Cincinnati that clinched the tourney crown and league's automatic NCAA Tournament berth. The Bearcats led by as many as nine points in the final 10 minutes of regulation prior to one of the biggest comebacks in Lady Frog history.
The Frogs' third NCAA tourney appearance proved to be just as successful as the previous two trips. TCU earned the No. 9 seed in the East Region and was matched up against No. 8 seed Michigan State in the opening round at Storrs, Conn. The Frogs, aided by a game-clinching layup by guard Ebony Shaw in the contest's closing seconds, earned a 50-47 win over Michigan State for their third NCAA first-round victory in as many seasons.
The following round would be yet another challenge, as No. 1 UConn—the defending national champion—loomed. The Huskies boasted a lineup featuring the nation's best player in Diana Taurasi and had won 62 straight games on their home court entering the game. TCU had already shown earlier in the season that it could match up with an elite team on the road during their trip to Tennessee, and the nation saw once again the Lady Frogs were for real against the Huskies.
TCU fought tough against UConn in the first half and took a 35-33 lead into the locker room, becoming only the sixth team in five years to do so against the Huskies. UConn erupted out of intermission with a quick 14-0 run that appeared might break the Frogs' spirit and later went up by as many as 19 points. TCU would not fold, however, and later responded with an 11-2 run of its own to climb back within 10 points with under seven minutes to play. Following a UConn timeout, Taurasi and the Huskies put the game out of reach. Taurasi finished with a career-high 35 points to boost her squad to an 81-66 win.
Despite the struggles early in the 2002-03 season, TCU showed that it had truly arrived as one of the nation's power programs with a strong finish to the season. Sandora Irvin completed her sophomore year at the top of most of the Frogs' statistical categories while earning All-Conference USA second-team and Defensive Player of the Year honors. The Frogs graduated three key players from that season's lineup in Candace Baldwin, Grace Gantt and Tricia Payne.
2002-03 Leaders: Sandora Irvin—12.0 ppg, 9.7 rpg, 3.9 bpg; Ebony Shaw—9.9 ppg, 3.6 rpg; Tiffany Evans—9.4 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 1.5 apg; Tricia Payne—7.4 ppg, 1.2 rpg, 1.8 apg; Candace Baldwin—7.0 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 2.9 apg.
Next Up: TCU goes 4-for-4 in NCAA Tournament bids while becoming a mainstay in the national polls.
