Impossible? Louisville Makes Big East 1st With 5 Teams in Final 4

For the first time in history, one conference has placed five teams in the Final Four, or rather Final Fours, as the Louisville women dominated Tennessee to join the UConn women, Notre Dame women, Syracuse men and Louisville men to give the Big East five teams in the Final Four. The 2006 Women’s ACC and 1985 Men’s Big East were the only other conferences to put three teams into either the Men’s or Women’s Final Four since the Women’s tournament started in 1982.

The feat was accomplished the year before all of the teams’ move to the ACC except for UConn. Lousville also became the first 5-seed or lower to ever make the Women’s Final Four.

Shoni Schimmel scored 24 points to add to the 22 she scored in the stunning upset of Baylor in Louisville’s other game in Oklahoma City, and Louisville maintained a double digit lead almost the entire game until eight-time champion Tennessee put on a press that cut the lead to single digits down the stretch. Louisville had one final push to win 86-78.

The Women’s Final Four is played next Sunday and Tuesday, alternating with the Men’s Final Four being played Saturday and Monday. In 1985 Big East fans held up signs saying, “Who invited Memphis to the Big East tournament?” and Memphis later forfeited that appearance for recruiting violations. The only three non-Big East teams playing in the two tournaments are the Michigan men, California women and Wichita State men.

 

Year	Team1	Team2	Team3	Team4	Conf multi
2013	Connecticut	Louisville	Notre Dame	California	BE3 + Lville & Syr men
2012	Baylor	Notre Dame	Stanford	Connecticut	BE 2
2011	Texas A&M	Notre Dame	Connecticut	Stanford	BE2
2010	Connecticut	Stanford	Baylor	Oklahoma
2009	Connecticut	Louisville	Stanford	Oklahoma	BE2
2008	Tennessee	Stanford	LSU	Connecticut	SEC2
2007	Tennessee	Rutgers	North Carolina	LSU	SEC2
2006	Maryland	Duke	North Carolina	LSU	ACC3
2005	Baylor	Michigan State	LSU	Tennessee	SEC2
2004	Connecticut	Tennessee	Minnesota	LSU	SEC2
2003	Connecticut	Tennessee	Texas	Duke
2002	Connecticut	Oklahoma	Tennessee	Duke
2001	Notre Dame	Purdue	Connecticut	SW Missouri St	BE2
2000	Connecticut	Tennessee	Rutgers	Penn St.	BE2
1999	Purdue	Duke	Louisiana Tech	Georgia
1998	Tennessee	Louisiana Tech	Arkansas	NC State	SEC2
1997	Tennessee	Old Dominion	Notre Dame	Stanford
1996	Tennessee	Georgia	Connecticut	Stanford	SEC2
1995	Connecticut	Tennessee	Stanford	Georgia	SEC2
1994	North Carolina	Louisiana Tech	Purdue	Alabama
1993	Texas Tech	Ohio State	Iowa	Vanderbilt	BTen2
1992	Stanford	Western Kentucky	SW Missouri State	Virginia
1991	Tennessee	Virginia	Connecticut	Stanford
1990	Stanford	Auburn	Virginia	Louisiana Tech
1989	Tennessee	Auburn	Louisiana Tech	Maryland	SEC2
1988	Louisiana Tech	Auburn	Long Beach State	Tennessee	SEC2
1987	Tennessee	Louisiana Tech	Texas	Long Beach State
1986	Texas	USC	Western Kentucky	Tennessee
1985	Old Dominion	Georgia	Western Kentucky	Northeast Louisiana	Men 3 BE
1984	USC	Tennessee	Cheyney State	Louisiana Tech
1983	USC	Louisiana Tech	Old Dominion	Georgia
1982	Louisiana Tech	Cheyney State	Tennessee	Maryland