1999 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament

The 1999 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament began on March 12, 1999, and concluded on March 28, 1999, when Purdue won its first national championship in any women's sport. The Final Four was held at the San Jose Arena in San Jose, California, on March 26–28, 1999. Purdue defeated Duke 62–45 in Carolyn Peck's final game as head coach for the Boilermakers. She had previously announced her intention of leaving Purdue after two seasons to coach the expansion WNBA Orlando Miracle.

The two finalists had recent "off the court" history. Duke's coach, Gail Goestenkors, was a former assistant coach at Purdue under Lin Dunn until becoming the Blue Devils' head coach in 1992. Dunn's firing from Purdue in 1996 and the subsequent player defections resulted in the unusual scenario that two Blue Devil players in the championship game had formerly transferred from Purdue. Purdue's Ukari Figgs was named Most Outstanding Player.

Notable events Tennessee, which had won the prior three national championships, was selected as a No. 1 seed, and started out strongly, beating Appalachian State, 113–54. They continued on easily through the second and third rounds, then faced Duke in the East regional final. Duke was the 3 seed, but had upset Old Dominion 76–63 to reach the regional final. Tennessee and Duke had met in the regular season, with the Lady Vols winning by 14. The game was played in North Carolina, but Tennessee fans outnumbered Duke fans. Tennessee's Chamique Holdsclaw, generally considered the top player in the college game, missed her first ten shots, and ended up with only eight points, her lowest point total of the year. Duke reached an eleven-point lead in the first half, but Tennessee started the second half strong, hitting four baskets in a row, and cut the lead to four points. Duke went over five minutes without scoring a basket, but Tennessee could only cut the lead to a single point. Duke's Georgia Schweitzer tied her career high with 22 points, and the Blue Devils advanced to the Final Four for the first time in their history.

Connecticut was the 1 seed in the Mideast regional, and hosted the first two rounds at their home court, Gampel Pavilion. The Huskies won their first game easily, beating St. Francis (PA) by 51 points. The second game, against Xavier, would prove to be very different. Xavier led by as many as ten points in the second half, and with just over two minutes to play, the Musketeers had an eight-point lead, 84–76. UConn scored six consecutive points to tie the game at 84 points each. With 37 seconds left in the game Xavier's Nikki Kremer was fouled, and headed to the line, having hit all eight free throw attempts on the day. She missed both attempts. After Shea Ralph missed a jumper, Tamika Williams snared the rebound and was fouled. With seven seconds left in the game she hit both free throws. Xavier tried two desperation shots, but missed both, and UConn narrowly escaped an upset on their own court.

Georgia faced Duke in one of the national semi-finals. Georgia hit nine of their sixteen three-point attempts, and held the Miller twins, who had been averaging 37 points per game, to only 31. Duke led at halftime, then went on a 14–5 run to extend the lead. Georgia later responded with a 13–4 run, but could not take the lead. Duke won the game, 81–69, and advanced to their first championship game.

Louisiana Tech returned to the Final Four, a year after reaching the championship game. However, Purdue came into the game riding a 30-game winning streak. Purdue's Ukari Figgs scored 18 points in the first half, leading to a 40–27 lead at halftime. The Lady Techsters fought back in the second half, and cut the lead to three points, but Purdue's Stephanie White-McCarty stole the ball for a score, and followed it with a shot-clock-beating basket to extend the lead back to seven points. Louisiana Tech did not get closer again, and the Boilermakers extended their winning streak to 31 games, and a place in the championship match with a 77–63 win.

Tournament records Steals in a first or second round game – Old Dominion, recorded 25 steals in an East region first-round game against Tennessee Tech, tying the record for most steals in any NCAA tournament game, set by Maryland against Stephen F. Austin in 1989, since the statistic was first recorded in 1988. Personal fouls – Missouri State committed 36 personal fouls in a West region second-round game against Colorado State, setting the record for most personal fouls committed in an NCAA tournament game.

Qualifying teams – automatic Sixty-four teams were selected to participate in the 1999 NCAA Tournament. Thirty conferences were eligible for an automatic bid to the 1999 NCAA tournament.

Automatic bids     Record   Qualifying School Conference Regular Season Conference Seed Appalachian State Southern Conference 16 CSU-Northridge Big Sky Conference 15 Clemson ACC 2 Connecticut Big East 1 Dartmouth Ivy League 14 Evansville Missouri Valley Conference 13 Florida A&M MEAC 15 Grambling State SWAC 12 Green Bay Midwestern Collegiate 14 Holy Cross Patriot League 14 Liberty Big South Conference 14 Louisiana Tech Sun Belt Conference 1 Northeastern America East 13 Old Dominion Colonial 2 Oral Roberts Mid-Continent 16 Purdue Big Ten 1 SMU WAC 11 St. Francis (PA) Northeast Conference 16 St. Joseph's Atlantic 10 11 St. Mary's (CA) West Coast Conference 12 St. Peter's MAAC 13 Stephen F. Austin Southland 15 Tennessee SEC 1 Tennessee Tech Ohio Valley Conference 15 Texas Tech Big 12 2 Toledo MAC 6 Tulane Conference USA 6 UC-Santa Barbara Big West Conference 10 UCF Trans America 16 UCLA Pac-10 3

Qualifying teams – at-large Thirty-four additional teams were selected to complete the sixty-four invitations.

At-large Bids     Record   Qualifying School Conference Regular Season Conference Seed University of Alabama Southeastern 5 University of Arizona Pacific-10 6 Auburn University Southeastern 5 Boston College Big East 8 University of Cincinnati Conference USA 12 Colorado State University Western Athletic 2 Duke University Atlantic Coast 3 Florida International University Sun Belt 9 University of Florida Southeastern 11 University of Georgia Southeastern 3 University of Illinois Big Ten 7 Iowa State University Big 12 4 University of Kansas Big 12 9 University of Kentucky Southeastern 6 University of Louisville Conference USA 10 Louisiana State University Southeastern 4 University of Maine America East 10 Marquette University Conference USA 8 Mississippi State University Southeastern 7 Missouri State University Missouri Valley 7 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Big 12 11 University of North Carolina Atlantic Coast 4 North Carolina State University Atlantic Coast 10 University of Notre Dame Big East 5 Ohio State University Big Ten 9 University of Oregon Pacific-10 5 Pennsylvania State University Big Ten 8 Rutgers University Big East 3 Santa Clara University West Coast 13 Stanford University Pacific-10 7 University of Texas at Austin Big 12 12 University of Virginia Atlantic Coast 9 Virginia Tech Atlantic 10 4 Xavier University Atlantic 10 8

Bids by conference Thirty conferences earned an automatic bid. In seventeen cases, the automatic bid was the only representative from the conference. Thirty-four additional at-large teams were selected from thirteen of the conferences.

Bids Conference Teams 8

Southeastern

Tennessee, Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi St. 5

Atlantic Coast

Clemson, Duke, North Carolina, North Carolina St., Virginia 5

Big 12

Texas Tech, Iowa St., Kansas, Nebraska, Texas 4

Big East

Connecticut, Boston College, Notre Dame, Rutgers 4

Big Ten

Purdue, Illinois, Ohio St., Penn St. 4

Conference USA

Tulane, Cincinnati, Louisville, Marquette 4

Pacific-10

UCLA, Arizona, Oregon, Stanford 3

Atlantic 10

St. Joseph's, Virginia Tech, Xavier 2

America East

Northeastern, Maine 2

Missouri Valley

Evansville, Missouri St. 2

Sun Belt

Louisiana Tech, FIU 2

West Coast

St. Mary's, Santa Clara 2

Western Athletic

SMU, Colorado St. 1

Big Sky

Cal St. Northridge 1

Big South

Liberty 1

Big West

UC Santa Barb. 1

Colonial

Old Dominion 1

Ivy

Dartmouth 1

Metro Atlantic

St. Peter's 1

Mid-American

Toledo 1

Mid-Continent

Oral Roberts 1

Mid-Eastern

Florida A&M 1

Midwestern Collegiate

Green Bay 1

Northeast

St. Francis (PA) 1

Ohio Valley

Tennessee Tech 1

Patriot

Holy Cross 1

Southern

Appalachian St. 1

Southland

Stephen F. Austin 1

Southwestern

Grambling 1

Trans America

UCF

1999 NCAA tournament schedule and venues

In 1999, the field remained at 64 teams. The teams were seeded, and assigned to four geographic regions, with seeds 1-16 in each region. In Round 1, seeds 1 and 16 faced each other, as well as seeds 2 and 15, seeds 3 and 14, seeds 4 and 13, seeds 5 and 12, seeds 6 and 11, seeds 7 and 10, and seeds 8 and 9. In the first two rounds, the top four seeds were given the opportunity to host the first-round game. In all cases, the higher seed accepted the opportunity.

First and Second rounds

The following lists the region, host school, venue and the sixteen first and second round locations: March 12 and 14 East Region Old Dominion University Fieldhouse, Norfolk, Virginia (Host: Old Dominion University) Mideast Region Littlejohn Coliseum, Clemson, South Carolina (Host: Clemson University) Harry A. Gampel Pavilion, Storrs, Connecticut (Host: University of Connecticut) Hilton Coliseum, Ames, Iowa (Host: Iowa State University) Midwest Region Carmichael Auditorium, Chapel Hill, North Carolina (Host: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) Louis Brown Athletic Center, Piscataway, New Jersey (Host: Rutgers University) West Region Thomas Assembly Center, Ruston, Louisiana (Host: Louisiana Tech University) Moby Arena, Fort Collins, Colorado (Host: Colorado State University) March 13 and 15 East Region Thompson–Boling Arena, Knoxville, Tennessee (Host: University of Tennessee) Cameron Indoor Stadium, Durham, North Carolina (Host: Duke University) Cassell Coliseum, Blacksburg, Virginia (Host: Virginia Tech) Mideast Region Stegeman Coliseum, Athens, Georgia (Host: University of Georgia) Midwest Region Mackey Arena, West Lafayette, Indiana (Host: Purdue University) Lubbock Municipal Coliseum, Lubbock, Texas (Host: Texas Tech University) West Region Pete Maravich Assembly Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana (Host: Louisiana State University) Pauley Pavilion, Los Angeles, California (Host: University of California, Los Angeles)

Regional semifinals and finals

The Regionals, named for the general location, were held from March 20 to March 22 at these sites: March 20 and 22 Midwest Regional, Redbird Arena, Normal, Illinois (Host: Illinois State University) West Regional, Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, Los Angeles, California (Host: University of Southern California) Mideast Regional, Shoemaker Center, Cincinnati, Ohio (Host: University of Cincinnati) East Regional, Greensboro Coliseum Complex, Greensboro, North Carolina

Each regional winner advanced to the Final Four held March 26 and March 28 in San Jose, California at the San Jose Arena

Bids by state

The sixty-four teams came from thirty-one states. California had the most teams with six bids. Nineteen states did not have any teams receiving bids.

Bids State Teams 6

California

Cal St. Northridge, St. Mary's, UC Santa Barb., UCLA, Santa Clara, Stanford 4

Florida

Florida A&M, UCF, FIU, Florida 4

Louisiana

Grambling, Louisiana Tech, Tulane, LSU 4

North Carolina

Appalachian St., Duke, North Carolina, North Carolina St. 4

Ohio

Toledo, Cincinnati, Ohio St., Xavier 4

Texas

SMU, Stephen F. Austin, Texas Tech, Texas 4

Virginia

Liberty, Old Dominion, Virginia, Virginia Tech 3

Indiana

Evansville, Purdue, Notre Dame 3

Massachusetts

Holy Cross, Northeastern, Boston College 2

Alabama

Alabama, Auburn 2