2005 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament

The 2005 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament began on March 19, 2005, and concluded on April 5, 2005, when Baylor was crowned as the new national champion. The Final Four was held for the first (and last) time at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana on April 3 and 5, 2005, and was hosted by Butler University and the Horizon League. Future Final Fours will be held every five years in Indianapolis, the NCAA's home city, will be played at Lucas Oil Stadium, one block south of the Indiana Convention Center, where the RCA Dome is located. Baylor, coached by Kim Mulkey-Robertson, defeated Michigan State, coached by Joanne P. McCallie, 84–62 in the championship game. Baylor's Sophia Young was named Most Outstanding Player. For the first time, taking a page from the Men's Tournament, the regionals were named after the city they were played in, rather than the geographical location (East, Mideast, Midwest and West), and the "pod" system adopted by the Men's Tournament was used.

2005 NCAA Division I
women's basketball tournament

2005 Women's Final Four logo
Teams	64
Finals site	RCA Dome Indianapolis, Indiana
Champions	Baylor Bears (1st title, 1st title game, 1st Final Four)
Runner-up	Michigan State Spartans (1st title game, 1st Final Four)
Semifinalists	LSU Tigers (2nd Final Four) Tennessee Volunteers (16th Final Four)
Winning coach	Kim Mulkey (1st title)
MOP	Sophia Young (Baylor)
NCAA Division I women's tournaments «2004 2006»

Notable events

In three of the four regions, the number one seed in the region advanced to the Final Four. In the Chattanooga Regional, 13th seeded Liberty upset both Penn State and DePaul to advance to the regional semifinal, but there encountered the top seed LSU, who won and went on to defeat Duke to advance to the Final Four in Indianapolis.

In the Philadelphia Regional, Tennessee faced Purdue in the second round. The victory represented the 880th win for coach Pat Summitt, moving her beyond Dean Smith 879 career victories, to claim the top spot in college basketball career victories. Rutgers upset Ohio State to advance to the regional final, but top seeded Tennessee won to advance. In the Kansas City Regional, top seeded Michigan State defeated the 2 seed Stanford to advance. The single exception was in the Tempe Regional, where second seeded Baylor upset North Carolina to earn a spot at the Final Four.

In one semifinal, Baylor faced LSU. Five years earlier, Baylor had won just seven games against twenty losses, and had never been to an NCAA Tournament. Then they hired Kim Mulkey, who coached the team to an NCAA berth in her first year, and now was coaching a team in the Final Four. However, thirteen minutes into the game, LSU led 24–9. The two teams had played before, in the opening regular season game for Baylor. In that game the Lady Bears found themselves down by 19 points at halftime. They almost closed the gap, but ended up with a one-point loss. This time, they found themselves down again by a large margin. Mulkey called a timeout, and the team responded with six straight points. Not long after, a three-pointer cut the lead to six, and they continued to chip away, reaching the halftime with the score tied at 28. After the break, LSU retook the lead, and were up by four points with just over eight minutes to play, but would go scoreless for five minutes. Baylor retook the lead, and held on to win 68–57 to advance to the championship game.

In the second semifinal, Tennessee faced Michigan State, who were playing in their first Final Four. The Lady Vols had a six-point lead at halftime, but extended the lead to 16 points with fourteen and a half minutes to go. Although the crowd had watched Baylor recover from a 15-point deficit earlier in the evening, that had occurred with 28 minutes to play. This time, the deficit was 16 and just over 14 minutes left. The Spartans cut into the lead, and with a minute to go had tied the game. At that point Kristin Haynie, who had only scored two points in the game, stole the ball and ran almost the length of the floor to score a layup and take the lead. Tennessee then missed three shots and Michigan State scored the final points of the game to tie the record for the largest comeback in NCAA Tournament history.

The final matched up two nontraditional names in women's basketball. Michigan State had never before advanced beyond the second round, and Baylor had but once, and was only in their fourth NCAA tournament ever. Baylor opened up a 19-point lead early, but no lead seemed safe after 15 point and 16 point comebacks in the semifinals. The lead ballooned to 23, then Michigan State attempted a comeback, but the Lady Bears were too strong, and went on to win their first national championship 84–62.

Locations

Seattle

Knoxville

Storrs

College Park

Minneapolis

Chapel Hill

Dallas

Fresno

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2005 NCAA NCAA first and second round venues

Kansas City

Philadelphia

Chattanooga

Tempe

Indianapolis

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2005 NCAA Regionals and Final Four

So as to decrease the number of games played on a competing team's home court, the subregionals were held at eight locations, rather than 16, for the first time. Furthermore, following the lead of the men's tournament in recent years, the 2005 women's tournament used the "pod system", keeping most teams at or close to the home cities, and were held from March 19 to 22 at these locations:

• March 19 and 21:

Bank of America Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion, Seattle, Washington (Host: University of Washington)

Reunion Arena, Dallas, Texas (Host: University of Texas at Austin and Texas Tech University)

Save Mart Center, Fresno, California (Host: Fresno State University)

Williams Arena, Minneapolis, Minnesota (Host: University of Minnesota, Twin Cities)

• March 20 and 22:

Comcast Center, College Park, Maryland (Host: University of Maryland, College Park)

Dean Smith Center, Chapel Hill, North Carolina (Host: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

Harry A. Gampel Pavilion, Storrs, Connecticut (Host: University of Connecticut)

Thompson-Boling Arena, Knoxville, Tennessee (Host: University of Tennessee)

The regionals were held from March 24 to 27 in the following regions. The regionals, for the first time, were named after the city they were played in instead of a direction (East, South, Midwest, West).

• March 26 and 28:

Chattanooga Regional, McKenzie Arena, Chattanooga, Tennessee (Host: University of Tennessee at Chattanooga)

Tempe Regional, Wells Fargo Arena, Tempe, Arizona (Host: Arizona State University)

• March 27 and 29:

Kansas City Regional, Municipal Auditorium, Kansas City, Missouri (Host: University of Missouri–Kansas City)

Philadelphia Regional, Liacouras Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Host: Temple University)

The regional winners advanced to the Final Four, held on April 3 and 5, 2005 at the RCA Dome, in Indianapolis, Indiana, hosted by both Butler University and the Horizon League.

Tournament records

• Margin overcome—Michigan State overcame a 16-point deficit, trailing 47–31, with 16:03 remaining, but rallied to beat Tennessee 68–64. The 16 point margin overcome is the largest in an NCAA semifinal game.

Qualifying teams - automatic

Sixty-four teams were selected to participate in the 2005 NCAA Tournament. Thirty-one conferences were eligible for an automatic bid to the 2005 NCAA tournament.

Automatic Bids
		Record
Qualifying School	Conference	Regular Season	Conference	Seed
Alcorn State	SWAC	21–8	14–4	16
Baylor	Big 12 Conference	27–3	14–2	2
Bowling Green	MAC	23–7	13–3	13
Canisius	MAAC	21–9	14–4	15
Connecticut	Big East	23–7	13–3	3
Coppin State	MEAC	23–7	15–3	16
Dartmouth	Ivy League	17–10	12–2	14
Eastern Kentucky	Ohio Valley Conference	23–8	15–1	12
Green Bay	Horizon League	27–3	15–1	10
Hartford	America East	22–8	13–5	14
Holy Cross	Patriot League	20–10	12–2	15
Illinois State	Missouri Valley Conference	13–17	7–11	15
Liberty	Big South Conference	24–6	13–1	13
Michigan State	Big Ten	28–3	14–2	1
Middle Tennessee State	Sun Belt Conference	23–7	11–3	12
Montana	Big Sky Conference	22–7	13–1	12
New Mexico	Mountain West	26–4	12–2	8
North Carolina	ACC	28–4	12–2	1
Old Dominion	Colonial	22–8	15–3	11
Oral Roberts	Mid-Continent	22–8	10–6	14
Rice	WAC	24–8	14–4	11
Santa Clara	West Coast Conference	17–13	8–6	15
St. Francis (PA)	Northeast Conference	21–9	16–2	14
Stanford	Pac-10	29–2	17–1	2
Stetson	Atlantic Sun Conference	17–13	11–9	16
TCU	Conference USA	23–9	10–4	7
Temple	Atlantic 10	27–3	16–0	6
Tennessee	SEC	26–4	13–1	1
UT-Arlington	Southland	21–9	13–3	13
UC-Santa Barbara	Big West Conference	21–8	16–2	13
Western Carolina	Southern Conference	18–13	10–10	16

Qualifying teams - at-large

Thirty-three additional teams were selected to complete the sixty-four invitations.

At-large Bids
		Record
Qualifying School	Conference	Regular Season	Conference	Seed
Arizona	Pacific-10	19–11	11–7	9
Arizona State	Pacific-10	21–9	12–6	5
Boston College	Big East	19–9	10–6	7
DePaul	Conference USA	25–4	13–1	5
Duke	Atlantic Coast	28–4	12–2	2
Florida State	Atlantic Coast	23–7	9–5	6
George Washington	Atlantic 10	22–8	13–3	9
Georgia	Southeastern	22–9	9–5	6
Houston	Conference USA	21–8	10–4	10
Iowa State	Big 12	23–6	12–4	7
Kansas State	Big 12	23–7	12–4	4
Louisiana Tech	Western Athletic	20–9	14–4	11
Louisville	Conference USA	22–8	11–3	9
LSU	Southeastern	29–2	14–0	1
Maryland	Atlantic Coast	21–9	7–7	7
Minnesota	Big Ten	24–7	12–4	3
Ole Miss	Southeastern	19–10	8–6	8
N.C. State	Atlantic Coast	21–7	10–4	5
Notre Dame	Big East	26–5	13–3	4
Ohio State	Big Ten	29–3	14–2	2
Oklahoma	Big 12	17–12	8–8	8
Oregon	Pacific-10	20–9	12–6	10
Penn State	Big Ten	19–10	13–3	4
Purdue	Big Ten	16–12	9–7	9
Richmond	Atlantic 10	23–7	12–4	11
Rutgers	Big East	25–6	14–2	3
USC	Pacific-10	19–10	12–6	8
Texas	Big 12	21–8	13–3	3
Texas Tech	Big 12	22–7	12–4	4
Utah	Mountain West	25–7	12–2	10
Vanderbilt	Southeastern	22–7	10–4	5
Virginia	Atlantic Coast	20–10	8–6	6
Virginia Tech	Atlantic Coast	17–11	6–8	12

Bids by conference

Thirty-one conferences earned an automatic bid. In twenty-one cases, the automatic bid was the only representative from the conference. Thirty-three additional at-large teams were selected from ten of the conferences.

Bids	Conference	Teams
7	Atlantic Coast	North Carolina, Duke, Florida State, Maryland, North Carolina State, Virginia, Virginia Tech
6	Big 12	Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas Tech
5	Big Ten	Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue
5	Pacific-10	Stanford, Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon, Southern California
5	Southeastern	Tennessee, Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt
4	Big East	Connecticut, Boston College, Notre Dame, Rutgers
4	Conference USA	TCU, DePaul, Houston, Louisville
3	Atlantic 10	Temple, George Washington, Richmond
2	Mountain West	New Mexico, Utah
2	Western Athletic	Rice, Louisiana Tech
1	America East	Hartford
1	Atlantic Sun	Stetson
1	Big Sky	Montana
1	Big South	Liberty
1	Big West	UC Santa Barb.
1	Colonial	Old Dominion
1	Horizon	Green Bay
1	Ivy	Dartmouth
1	Metro Atlantic	Canisius
1	Mid-American	Bowling Green
1	Mid-Continent	Oral Roberts
1	Mid-Eastern	Coppin State
1	Missouri Valley	Illinois State
1	Northeast	St. Francis Pa.
1	Ohio Valley	Eastern Ky.
1	Patriot	Holy Cross
1	Southern	Western Caro.
1	Southland	Texas-Arlington
1	Southwestern	Alcorn State
1	Sun Belt	Middle Tenn.
1	West Coast	Santa Clara

Bids by state

The sixty-four teams came from thirty-one states, plus Washington, D.C. Texas had the most teams with seven bids. Nineteen states did not have any teams receiving bids.

NCAA Women's basketball Tournament invitations by state 2005

Bids	State	Teams
7	Texas	Baylor, Rice, TCU, Texas-Arlington, Houston, Texas, Texas Tech
5	Virginia	Liberty, Old Dominion, Richmond, Virginia, Virginia Tech
4	California	Santa Clara, Stanford, UC Santa Barb., Southern California
4	North Carolina	North Carolina, Western Caro., Duke, North Carolina State
3	Tennessee	Middle Tenn., Tennessee, Vanderbilt
2	Arizona	Arizona, Arizona State
2	Connecticut	Connecticut, Hartford
2	Florida	Stetson, Florida State
2	Illinois	Illinois State, DePaul
2	Indiana	Notre Dame, Purdue
2	Kentucky	Eastern Ky., Louisville
2	Louisiana	Louisiana Tech, LSU
2	Maryland	Coppin State, Maryland
2	Massachusetts	Holy Cross, Boston College
2	Mississippi	Alcorn State, Ole Miss
2	New York	Canisius, St. Francis
2	Ohio	Bowling Green, Ohio State
2	Oklahoma	Oral Roberts, Oklahoma
2	Pennsylvania	Temple, Penn State
1	District of Columbia	George Washington
1	Georgia	Georgia
1	Iowa	Iowa State
1	Kansas	Kansas State
1	Michigan	Michigan State
1	Minnesota	Minnesota
1	Montana	Montana
1	New Hampshire	Dartmouth
1	New Jersey	Rutgers
1	New Mexico	New Mexico
1	Oregon	Oregon
1	Utah	Utah
1	Wisconsin	Green Bay

Brackets

Data source

Chattanooga Regional

	First round March 19 and 20					Second round March 21 and 22					Regional semifinals March 26					Regional finals March 28
	1	LSU	70
	16	Stetson	36
						1	LSU	76
	Knoxville, TN
						9	Arizona	43
	8	Oklahoma	69
	9	Arizona	72
											1	LSU	90
											13	Liberty	48
	5	DePaul	79
	12	Virginia Tech	78
						5	DePaul	79
	College Park, MD
						13	Liberty	88
	4	Penn State	70
	13	Liberty	78
																1	LSU	59
																2	Duke	49
	6	Georgia	75
	11	Rice	49
						6	Georgia	70
	Dallas, TX
						3	Texas	68
	3	Texas	63
	14	Oral Roberts	58
											6	Georgia	57
											2	Duke	63
	7	Boston College	65
	10	Houston	43
						7	Boston College	65
	Chapel Hill, NC
						2	Duke	70
	2	Duke	80
	15	Canisius	48

Tempe Regional

	First round March 19 and 20					Second round March 21 and 22					Regional semifinals March 25					Regional finals March 27
	1	North Carolina	97
	16	Coppin State	62
						1	North Carolina	71
	Chapel Hill, NC
						9	George Washington	47
	8	Ole Miss	57
	9	George Washington	60
											1	North Carolina	79
											5	Arizona State	72
	5	Arizona State	87
	12	Eastern Kentucky	65
						5	Arizona State	70
	Fresno, CA
						4	Notre Dame	61
	4	Notre Dame	61
	13	UC Santa Barbara	51
																1	North Carolina	63
																2	Baylor	72
	6	Virginia	79
	11	Old Dominion	57
						6	Virginia	58
	Minneapolis, MN
						3	Minnesota	73
	3	Minnesota	64
	14	St. Francis (PA)	33
											3	Minnesota	57
											2	Baylor	64
	7	TCU	55
	10	Oregon	58
						10	Oregon	46
	Seattle, WA
						2	Baylor	69
	2	Baylor	91
	15	Illinois State	70

Philadelphia Regional

	First round March 19 and 20					Second round March 21 and 22					Regional semifinals March 26					Regional finals March 28
	1	Tennessee	94
	16	Western Carolina	43
						1	Tennessee	75
	Knoxville, TN
						9	Purdue	54
	8	New Mexico	56
	9	Purdue	68
											1	Tennessee	75
											4	Texas Tech	59
	5	NC State	58
	12	Middle Tennessee	60
						12	Middle Tennessee	69
	Dallas, TX
						4	Texas Tech	80
	4	Texas Tech	69
	13	Texas-Arlington	49
																1	Tennessee	59
																3	Rutgers	49
	6	Temple	66
	11	Louisiana Tech	61
						6	Temple	54
	Storrs, CT
						3	Rutgers	61
	3	Rutgers	62
	14	Hartford	37
											3	Rutgers	64
											2	Ohio State	58
	7	Maryland	65
	10	Green Bay	55
						7	Maryland	65
	College Park, MD
						2	Ohio State	75
	2	Ohio State	86
	15	Holy Cross	45

Kansas City Regional

	First round March 19 and 20					Second round March 21 and 22					Regional semifinals March 25					Regional finals March 27
	1	Michigan State	73
	16	Alcorn State	41
						1	Michigan State	61
	Minneapolis, MN
						8	Southern California	59
	8	Southern California	65
	9	Louisville	49
											1	Michigan State	76
											5	Vanderbilt	64
	5	Vanderbilt	67
	12	Montana	44
						5	Vanderbilt	63
	Seattle, WA
						4	Kansas State	60
	4	Kansas State	70
	13	Bowling Green	60
																1	Michigan State	76
																2	Stanford	69
	6	Florida State	87
	11	Richmond	54
						6	Florida State	52
	Storrs, CT
						3	Connecticut	70
	3	Connecticut	95
	14	Dartmouth	47
											3	Connecticut	59
											2	Stanford	76
	7	Iowa State	61
	10	Utah	73
						10	Utah	62
	Fresno, CA
						2	Stanford	88
	2	Stanford	94
	15	Santa Clara	57

Final Four - Indianapolis, Indiana

	National semifinals April 3					National championship game April 5
	ME1	LSU	57
	W2	Baylor	68
						W2	Baylor	84
						MW1	Michigan State	62
	E1	Tennessee	64
	MW1	Michigan State	68

Record by conference

Conference	# of Bids	Record	Win %	Sweet Sixteen	Elite Eight	Final Four	Championship Game
SEC	5	12-5	70.6%	4	2	2	0
Big 12	6	10-5	66.7%	2	1	1	1
Big Ten	5	10-5	66.7%	3	1	1	1
Big South Conference	1	2-1	66.7%	1	0	0	0
Big East	4	7-4	63.6%	2	1	0	0
Pac-10	5	8-5	61.5%	2	1	0	0
ACC	7	9-7	56.3%	2	2	0	0
Sun Belt Conference	1	1-1	50.0%	0	0	0	0
Atlantic 10	3	2-3	40.0%	0	0	0	0
Mountain West	2	1-2	33.3%	0	0	0	0
Conference USA	4	1-4	20.0%	0	0	0	0
WAC	2	0-2	0.0%	0	0	0	0

Nineteen conferences went 0-1: America East, Atlantic Sun Conference Big Sky Conference, Big West Conference, Colonial, Horizon League, Ivy League, MAAC, MAC, Summit League, MEAC, Missouri Valley Conference, Northeast Conference, Ohio Valley Conference, Patriot League, Southern Conference, Southland, SWAC, and West Coast Conference

All-Tournament Team

• Sophia Young, Baylor
• Steffanie Blackmon, Baylor
• Emily Niemann, Baylor
• Lindsay Bowen, Michigan St.
• Kristin Haynie, Michigan St.

Game Officials

• Dee Kantner (semifinal)
• Sally Bell (semifinal)
• Tina Napier (semifinal)
• Barb Smith (semifinal)
• Bob Trammel (semifinal)
• Michael Price (semifinal)
• Lisa Mattingly (final)
• Melissa Barlow (final)
• Scott Yarbrough (final)

See also

• 2005 NCAA Division II women's basketball tournament
• 2005 NCAA Division III women's basketball tournament
• 2005 NAIA Division I women's basketball tournament
• 2005 NAIA Division II women's basketball tournament
• 2005 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament