Women's Basketball

Redbirds to Face Oklahoma in NCAA Tournament

[March 18, 2008]  NORMAL -- A crowd of family, friends and fans joined the Illinois State women's basketball team at Redbird Arena on Monday night to find out who and where the Missouri Valley Conference champions would play in the first round of the 2008 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament. They had to wait more than 30 minutes, but erupted in cheers when they saw that Illinois State is seeded 13th in the Oklahoma City Region. The Redbirds will take on fourth-seeded Oklahoma (21-8) at noon Sunday at Mackey Arena, the home of the Purdue Boilermakers, in West Lafayette, Ind.

"We are really excited to be a part of this tournament and to be able to play so close to home," said head coach Robin Pingeton. "West Lafayette isn't much further away from Bloomington-Normal than St. Charles, where we played the conference tournament last weekend. We had tremendous fan support there, which helped us win, and I hope we can have just as much support this weekend."

Illinois State is making its fifth trip to the NCAA tournament, and this year's 13th seed is its highest since the tournament field expanded to 64 teams in 1994. The Redbirds last appeared in the Big Dance in 2005, after winning their first MVC tournament title. ISU was seeded 15th in the Tempe Region and faced second-seeded Baylor, the eventual national champion, in Seattle.

In 1989, Illinois State was the seventh seed in the Midwest Region and hosted 10th-seeded Northwestern State in the first round. ISU picked up its only NCAA tournament win that season and lost to second-seeded Stanford in the second round.

The Redbirds received a No. 8 seed in the Midwest Region in 1985 and visited top-seeded Louisiana Tech, who advanced to the regional final, in the opening round.

ISU's first NCAA tournament appearance came in 1983, when the Redbirds, the sixth seed in the Midwest Region, took on Kansas State in Manhattan, Kan.

ISU clinched the Valley's automatic bid this year with a 70-62 win over Drake on Sunday in the championship game of the 2008 State Farm MVC Tournament. The Redbirds, who also finished in a three-way tie for the regular-season championship, became the 15th top seed to win the tournament and the first in four years.

Oklahoma is 21-8 this season and finished in a tie for third place in the Big 12 conference with an 11-5 mark. The Sooners are led by junior Courtney Paris, a two-time Associated Press All-American and the AP Player of the Year last season. Paris averages 18.7 points and 15.1 rebounds per game, the top rebound mark in the nation. Her twin sister, Ashley, averages 11.4 points per game and 8.1 rebounds per game.

The winner of the ISU-OU game will face either No. 5 Notre Dame or No. 12 SMU in the second round. Top-seeded Tennessee, eighth-seeded Utah, ninth-seeded Purdue and 16th-seeded Oral Roberts will play in the second session in West Lafayette.

(NCAA bracket)  [To download Adobe Acrobat Reader for the PDF file, click here.]

[Text from file received from Jimmy Knodel, assistant media relations director, Illinois State University]