1991 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament


The 1991 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament began on March 13 and ended on March 31. The tournament featured 48 teams. The Final Four event was hosted by the University of New Orleans, and held at the Lakefront Arena in New Orleans. The Final Four teams consisted of Tennessee, Stanford, Connecticut, and Virginia, with Tennessee defeating Virginia 70-67 to win its third NCAA title. Virginia's Dawn Staley was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.
This tournament was the first to adopt the FIBA's 10ths-second clock during the final minute of each period, unlike whole seconds as in past seasons.

Notable events

James Madison earned an 8 seed and beat the 9 seed, Kentucky in a first round match-up. This set up a game between the Dukes, and the number 1 seed in the East Regional Penn State, with the game played on the Penn State home court. The game started out in favor of the home team, as they scored the first eleven points of the game, forcing JMU coach Sheila Moorman to call a timeout. The lead extended, with the Nittany Lions pulling out to a 24–9. The coach decided to stress defense and it helped, but Penn State held a 41–29 lead at halftime. The team continued to stress defense in the second half, and the Dukes held Penn State to six points in the first eight minutes of the second half. The Dukes took a lead, and were up by four points with under twelve minutes to go. Penn State cut the lead to two points, and with 19 seconds to go attempted a three-point shot for the win, but the shot was blocked, and JMU would upset the top seed. It was only the second time in the ten-year history of the NCAA tournament that a number 1 seed had failed to advance to the regional. Coincidentally, first time was in 1986 when number 1 seeded Virginia failed to reach the regional when they were defeated by James Madison.
10th seeded Vanderbilt upset 7th seeded South Carolina, then went on to defeat the second seeded Purdue 69–63, to advance to the regional, where they would lose to Auburn. 10th seeded Lamar upset 7th seeded Texas, then went on to a 20-point victory over second seeded LSU. Oklahoma State faced Michigan State in a game that would go to three overtimes. Oklahoma State won 96–64.
Connecticut defeated Clemson in the Regional Final to earn their first trip to a Final Four. There they would take on one seeded Virginia. Connecticut's coach, Geno Auriemma started his women's basketball college coaching career as an assistant coach under Debbie Ryan at Virginia. In a game identified in 2009 as one of the top ten games in UConn history, Tonya Cardoza scored 16 points for the Cavaliers, including four three throws in the final second to help Virginia defeat Connecticut 61–55. Tonya Cardoza would go on to become an assistant coach at Connecticut for many years.
In the other semifinal game, Tennessee defeated Stanford 68–60 to advance to the championship game against Virginia. The Cavaliers would lead by five points with under two minutes to go, but Tennessee's Dena Head scored, was fouled, and converted the free throw to cut the margin to two points. Virginia failed to score, then fouled Head with seconds to go, who sank the free throws to send the game to overtime. Head continued to hit free throws in overtime, and the Volunteers went on to win the game and the national championship 70–67.

Qualifying teams - automatic

Forty-eight teams were selected to participate in the 1991 NCAA Tournament. Twenty-one conferences were eligible for an automatic bid to the 1991 NCAA tournament.

Qualifying teams - at-large

Twenty-seven additional teams were selected to complete the forty-eight invitations.

Bids by conference

Twenty-one conferences earned an automatic bid. In ten cases, the automatic bid was the only representative from the conference. Two conferences, Metro Atlantic and Patriot sent a single representative as an at-large team. Twenty-five additional at-large teams were selected from ten of the conferences.
BidsConferenceTeams
7SoutheasternLSU, Auburn, Georgia, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
4Atlantic CoastNorth Carolina St., Clemson, Maryland, Virginia
4Big TenPurdue, Iowa, Michigan St., Northwestern
4Pacific-10Stanford, Southern California, Washington, Washington St.
3Atlantic 10Penn St., George Washington, Rutgers
3Big WestLong Beach St., Cal St. Fullerton, UNLV
3SouthwestArkansas, Texas, Texas Tech
2American SouthLouisiana Tech, Lamar
2Big EastConnecticut, Providence
2ColonialRichmond, James Madison
2MetroFlorida St., South Carolina
1Big EightOklahoma St.
1Big SkyMontana
1Metro AtlanticFairfield
1Mid-AmericanToledo
1Missouri ValleyMissouri St.
1North StarDePaul
1Ohio ValleyTennessee Tech
1PatriotHoly Cross
1SouthernAppalachian St.
1SouthlandStephen F. Austin
1Sun BeltWestern Ky.
1Western AthleticUtah

First and second rounds

In 1991, the field remained at 48 teams. The teams were seeded, and assigned to four geographic regions, with seeds 1-12 in each region. In Round 1, seeds 8 and 9 faced each other for the opportunity to face the 1 seed in the second round, seeds 7 and 10 played for the opportunity to face the 2 seed, seeds 5 and 12 played for the opportunity to face the 4 seed, and seeds 6 and 11 played for the opportunity to face the 3 seed. In the first two rounds, the higher seed was given the opportunity to host the first-round game. In most cases, the higher seed accepted the opportunity. The exceptions:
The following table lists the region, host school, venue and the thirty-two first and second round locations:
RegionRndHostVenueCityState
East1Providence CollegeAlumni Hall ProvidenceRhode Island
East1Rutgers UniversityLouis Brown Athletic CenterPiscatawayNew Jersey
East1James Madison UniversityJames Madison University Convocation CenterHarrisonburgVirginia
East1University of RichmondRobins CenterRichmondVirginia
East2Clemson UniversityLittlejohn ColiseumClemsonSouth Carolina
East2University of ConnecticutHarry A. Gampel PavilionStorrsConnecticut
East2Pennsylvania State UniversityRecreation Building University ParkPennsylvania
East2North Carolina State UniversityReynolds ColiseumRaleighNorth Carolina
Mideast1Florida State UniversityTully GymnasiumTallahasseeFlorida
Mideast1Vanderbilt UniversityMemorial Gymnasium NashvilleTennessee
Mideast1Southwest Missouri State UniversityHammons Student CenterSpringfieldMissouri
Mideast1Holy CrossHart CenterWorcesterMassachusetts
Mideast2Purdue UniversityMackey ArenaWest LafayetteIndiana
Mideast2Western Kentucky UniversityE.A. Diddle ArenaBowling GreenKentucky
Mideast2University of TennesseeThompson-Boling ArenaKnoxvilleTennessee
Mideast2Auburn UniversityMemorial Coliseum AuburnAlabama
Midwest1Northwestern UniversityWelsh-Ryan ArenaEvanstonIllinois
Midwest1Oklahoma State UniversityGallagher-Iba ArenaStillwaterOklahoma
Midwest1Stephen F. Austin UniversityWilliam R. Johnson ColiseumNacogdochesTexas
Midwest1University of TexasFrank Erwin CenterAustinTexas
Midwest2Oklahoma State UniversityGallagher-Iba ArenaStillwaterOklahoma
Midwest2University of VirginiaUniversity Hall CharlottesvilleVirginia
Midwest2Lamar UniversityMontagne CenterBeaumontTexas
Midwest2University of ArkansasBarnhill ArenaFayettevilleArkansas
West1University of MontanaDahlberg ArenaMissoulaMontana
West1University of Nevada, Las VegasThomas and Mack CenterParadiseNevada
West1University of Southern CaliforniaLyon CenterLos AngelesCalifornia
West1California State University, FullertonTitan GymFullertonCalifornia
West2Stanford UniversityMaples PavilionStanfordCalifornia
West2University of GeorgiaGeorgia Coliseum AthensGeorgia
West2University of WashingtonHec Edmundson PavilionSeattleWashington
West2Long Beach StateUniversity Gym Long BeachCalifornia

Regionals and Final Four

The Regionals, named for the general location, were held from March 22 to March 24 at these sites:
Each regional winner advanced to the Final Four, held March 30 and March 31 in New Orleans, Louisiana at the Lakefront Arena,

Bids by state

The forty-eight teams came from thirty states, plus Washington, D.C. California and Texas had the most teams with four each. Twenty states did not have any teams receiving bids.
BidsStateTeams
4CaliforniaLong Beach St., Stanford, Cal St. Fullerton, Southern California
4TexasStephen F. Austin, Lamar, Texas, Texas Tech
3TennesseeTennessee Tech, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
3VirginiaRichmond, James Madison, Virginia
2ConnecticutConnecticut, Fairfield
2IllinoisDePaul, Northwestern
2KentuckyWestern Ky., Kentucky
2LouisianaLouisiana Tech, LSU
2North CarolinaAppalachian St., North Carolina St.
2South CarolinaClemson, South Carolina
2WashingtonWashington, Washington St.
1AlabamaAuburn
1ArkansasArkansas
1District of ColumbiaGeorge Washington
1FloridaFlorida St.
1GeorgiaGeorgia
1IndianaPurdue
1IowaIowa
1MarylandMaryland
1MassachusettsHoly Cross
1MichiganMichigan St.
1MississippiOle Miss
1MissouriMissouri St.
1MontanaMontana
1NevadaUNLV
1New JerseyRutgers
1OhioToledo
1OklahomaOklahoma St.
1PennsylvaniaPenn St.
1Rhode IslandProvidence
1UtahUtah

Brackets

First and second-round games played at higher seed except where noted.

Mideast Regional - Knoxville, TN

West Regional - Las Vegas, NV

East Regional - Philadelphia, PA

Midwest Regional - Austin, TX

Final Four - New Orleans, LA

Record by conference

Seventeen conferences had more than one bid, or at least one win in NCAA Tournament play:
Conference# of BidsRecordWin %Round
of 32
Sweet
Sixteen
Elite
Eight
Final
Four
Championship
Game
Southeastern7.64754311
Atlantic Coast4.63633211
Pacific-104.5563211
Big Ten4.3334
Big West3.50031
Atlantic 103.2502
Southwest3.25011
Big East2.6672111
American South2.600111
Colonial2.50011
Metro2.3331
Big Eight1.66711
Gateway1.5001
Mid-American1.5001
Patriot1.5001
Southland1.5001
Sun Belt1.50011

Seven conferences went 0-1: Big Sky Conference, MAAC, North Star Conference, Ohio Valley Conference, Southern Conference, and WAC

All-Tournament Team