March 16, 2007
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Missouri was awarded the Big 12's automatic bid to the 2007 WNIT following a 17-13 mark ... this is Mizzou's 19th time to participate in postseason play and fourth in the WNIT ... MU is 26-25 all-time in national tournaments, which includes NCAA (4-9), AIAW (19-13) and WNIT (3-3) games ... the Tigers are 3-3 in the WNIT and reached as far as the quarterfinals in 2003 ... Mizzou is 3-1 in WNIT home games and 0-2 on the road.
Back To Non-Conference Play
Missouri is 12-1 this season and 83-29 (.741) against non-Big 12 teams in nine seasons under Cindy Stein ... the Tigers are 22-4 (.846) against non-league teams in the last two seasons and have won 21 of their last 23 ... the Big 12 is 125-31 (.801) this season against the rest of the nation ... while MU has not faced a Mountain West team this season, Big 12 schools combined to go 5-2 against the nine-team league.
12-of-24 Mizzou Opponents In The Postseason
When the brackets came out on Monday night, 12 of the 24 schools Missouri faced this season were placed into either the NCAA or WNIT fields ... the Tigers went 7-8 against those teams with a 3-7 mark against eight NCAA Tourney teams and a 4-1 record against four WNIT entrants ... additionally, Texas opted not to participate in postseason play.
More On Missouri's Schedule
The Tigers are 17-13 on the year, with their 13 losses coming at the hands of teams that combined to post a 243-129 (.653) record during the season ... Mizzou's 13 non-conference opponents averaged 17 wins among them, five advanced to the postseason and five collected at least 19 wins.
Big 12 Earns Eight Postseason Bids
Eight teams will represent the Big 12 Conference in 2007 women's basketball postseason play ... Baylor, Iowa State, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M received NCAA Championship bids while Mizzou and Kansas State will participate in the WNIT ... it is the fourth-consecutive year that at least eight schools received bids to one of the tourneys.
Big 12 Schools In The WNIT
Big 12 schools are 33-18 (.647) in WNIT play since the current version came into existence in 1998 ... a league member has reached the finals three times - Baylor in 1998 and 2003, with Kansas State claiming the Big 12's only postseason WNIT title a year ago ... additionally, Iowa State reached the semifinals in 2004 ... Missouri is making its league-leading fourth appearance ... each of the last two champions - Kansas State in 2006 and Missouri State in 2005 - were on Missouri's regular-season slate earlier that year.
WNIT History Year Champion Runner-up 2006 Kansas State Marquette 2005 SW Missouri State West Virginia 2004 Creighton UNLV 2003 Auburn Baylor 2002 Oregon Houston 2001 Ohio State New Mexico 2000 Wisconsin Florida 1999 Arkansas Wisconsin 1998 Penn State Baylor
Road Play Tough In WNIT First Round
With the WNIT played on home courts, a look at the road record of the first round shows that the home team was 13-3 ... the trio of road wins came from Coppin State (at St. Joes), UCSB (at San Diego) and Kentucky (at Oakland).
What's At Stake
The Missouri-Wyoming winner will advance to the WNIT third round where it will face the winner of the UC-Santa Barbara at Oregon game, which is being played on Saturday in Eugene ... the third round contest will be played March 20-22 (Tuesday-Thursday) at a location to be determined.
About Wyoming
Wyoming went 21-9 this season and tied for second in the Mountain West Conference with an 11-5 record ... the Cowgirls are making their second-consecutive WNIT appearance and fourth overall ... junior F Hanna Zavecz leads UW in scoring (13.2 ppg), assists (3.6 apg), steals (1.6 spg), blocked shots (1.3 bpg) and field goal percentage (.433) ... she was also named to the Kodak/WBCA All-District Team and is a tree-time All-MWC selection ... Justyna Podziemska is second in scoring (12.7 ppg) and leads the team with 65 3-pointers made, while junior G Jodi Bolerjack averages 11.2 ppg, ranks second in triples (53) and ranks first in FT pct. (.845) ... Bolerjack and her twin sister, Amy, prepped at Columbia's Hickman HS and led the Kewpies to three district titles and a pair of MSHSAA championship games.
Mizzou-Wyoming Series History
Missouri won the only previous meeting, 96-36, back on Friday, Dec. 9, 1983, in the opening round of the Mid-America Classic in the Hearnes Center ... that margin is tied for the 11th-highest in school history ... against current Mountain West Conference schools, the Tigers are 12-4 all-time and 1-2 since the league was formed in 1999.
Riddle Named First-Team All-Big 12; Brooks & Savant Nab Honorable Mention
Senior C EeTisha Riddle was named to the All-Big 12 First Team last week in a vote of the league's head coaches ... it marks the fourth time in the last seven seasons that a Tiger has been voted to the first team by the coaches ... Riddle joins Amanda Lassiter (2001), Evan Unrau (2003-04) and LaToya Bond (2006) as first-teamers in the Big 12 era ... this marks just the second time in the last 17 years that Mizzou athletes have earned first team honors in back-to-back campaigns ... seniors Tiffany Brooks and Carlynn Savant were each named to the Honorable Mention All-Big 12 list.
Riddle Makes History With All-Big 12 Nod
What's even more impressive about EeTisha Riddle's All-Big 12 honor is that she did so while playing on a team that finished under .500 in conference play ... since the inception of the Big 12, only seven previous players had earned first-team honors while playing for teams that were 7-9 or below.
Player School Year W-L Phylesha Whaley Oklahoma 97-98 4-12 Lindsey Wilson Iowa St. 02-03 7-9 Evan Unrau Mizzou 03-04 7-9 Toccara Williams Tex. A&M 03-04 2-14 Lyndsey Medders Iowa St. 05-06 7-9 Crystal Kemp Kansas 05-06 5-11 Tiffany Jackson Texas 05-06 7-9 EeTisha Riddle Mizzou 06-07 5-11
Savant Sets Missouri Career 3FG Record
With her second 3-pointer at Oklahoma Feb. 25, Carlynn Savant became Missouri's all-time leader in 3-pointers made with 141 ... she broke Tracy Lozier's record of 140, set from 2001-04 ... her .414 career 3-point percentage is second all-time but sits 21 points back of Stacy Williams' benchmark of .436.
38 Wins Over Last Two Years Among Mizzou Highs
Missouri has won a combined 38 games since the start of last year - a figure that ranks as the second-highest 2-year total in the last 17 seasons ... dating back to 1990, only the Cindy Stein-coached teams in 1999-00 and 2000-01 won more games as they totaled 40 between them ... when looking at regular-season totals only, the current total of 37 is one more than the aforementioned pair of teams.
Mizzou Among The League's Best Offenses
Missouri enters the WNIT ranked first in the Big 12 in FT Pct. (.786), third in 3-FG Pct. (.351), fourth in FG Pct. (.422) and fifth in scoring offense (69.9 ppg) ... Mizzou is the only school to rank in the top-half of the league stats in all four categories.