North Carolina State University Athletics
No. 21 Wolfpack Preps for 18th NCAA Tournament
3/16/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
March 16, 2005
RALEIGH, N.C. - No. 21 NC State will make its 18th appearance in the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament starting with the first round on Saturday, March 19. The Wolfpack, 21-7, earned an at-large bid and enters the 24th annual tournament as one of four, five seeds. NC State will take on the 12th seeded Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders at 6 p.m. central, 7 p.m. eastern in the Reunion Center in Dallas, Texas. MT won the Sun Belt Conference Tournament, capping a 23-8 season. This marks the first meeting between the two teams. NC State is 1-2 as a five seed and 2-1 versus a 12-seed.
The game will be televised on ESPN2 with Ron Franklin, Nancy Lieberman and Holly Rowe providing coverage. NC State's radio broadcast with the Wolfpack Capitol Sports Radio Network begins coverage at 6:45 p.m. eastern. Patrick Kinas is slated for play-by-play duties with Kerby Court giving color analysis.
NC State is coming off its 20th, 20 win season and will be participating in its 18th tournament of 24 years, becoming just one of 10 teams all time to do so. And for the first time since 2001, will enter the tournament as a ranked team. The Wolfpack is 14-13 as a ranked team and 17-17 in 17 previous appearances.
Seven of NC State's returning players have some NCAA tournament experience. That is to say, all seven played in last year's loss to Auburn. Of those seven, only junior Rachel Stockdale and senior Kendra Bell played the most minutes as starters. Stockdale was named the Player of the Game after she recorded 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting and all five shots were three-pointers. She also added four rebounds, two steals and one assist. Bell came back after sitting out both the Pack's ACC tournament games due to mononucleosis and played 24 minutes. In that time she was 3-for-9, hit one three, tallied three rebounds and had two steals, one assist and zero turnovers.
This season the Wolfpack has seen several players lead the way in scoring, including junior Billie McDowell. The shooting guard out of Lumberton, N.C. has posted nine double figure-scoring games and currently leads the team averaging 11.5 points per game. Junior Tiffany Stansbury is close behind with 11.4 ppg, and has a team-best 6.5 rebounds per game. Both were named to the All-ACC teams, with Stansbury receiving a second team nod and earning McDowell third team accolades. Freshman Khadijah Whittington has come off the bench to add 8.1 ppg and 5.3 rpg. She was named to the ACC All-Freshmen team.
Middle Tennessee finished the regular season with a 23-8 overall and 11-3 Sun Belt Conference records and won its second-straight SBC tournament title this past week, defeating Louisiana-Lafayette, 67-52. The Blue Raiders have won their last six games, led by senior Patrice Holmes. She is averaging 14.9 ppg. The 5-foot-9 guard was named Most Outstanding Player of the Sun Belt Championship for the third-straight year. She posted 18.0 ppg and 7.0 rpg in the four games leading to back-to-back tournament titles. Junior forward Tia Stovall is also helping MT with her 13.4 ppg and a team-high 5.7 rpg. She was named All-Sun Belt honorable mention this year. Head coach Stephany Smith is in her eighth season with the Lady Raiders. She is 1-2 in the NCAA Tournament and 152-87 at the helm of MT. Middle Tennessee will be making its ninth tournament appearance and is 3-8 in that time. The squad defeated North Carolina last year in the first round and is 4-4 in all games against the Atlantic Coast Conference.
NC State has played just six previous games all-time against the Sun Belt Conference. The Wolfpack is 5-1 overall, 2-0 at home, 1-1 on the road and 2-0 on a neutral court. The last matchup with a SBC team was against New Orleans on Dec. 12, 1999. NC State won, 82-54. The lone loss coincidentally came against New Orleans on Dec. 19, 1998, 74-70 in two overtime periods.
NC State is 2-1 against a No. 12 seed. The last time the Wolfpack faced a 12 seed was in 2000, on March 18. The Pack fell to Southern Methodist, 64-63 in the first round. The two wins came against Youngstown State on March 15, 1998. The Pack won 88-61 in the second round. And also against Montana on March 15, 1996, 77-68 in the first round.
Notes: NC State head coach Kay Yow is one of 10 coaches in NCAA Division I women's basketball history to make 18 or more trips to the "Big Dance". NC State is just one of 10 D-I institutions to have both its men's and women's programs earn back-to-back bids to the tournament. It is also one of 21 teams of the 65 men's and 64 women's teams to see both programs in the 2005 national championship bracket.
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