1984 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament

The 1984 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament began on March 16 and ended on April 1. It featured 32 teams, four fewer than the previous year. Tennessee, Louisiana Tech, Cheyney, and Southern California were the Final Four, with Southern California defeating Tennessee, 72–61, for its second straight title. USC's Cheryl Miller was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament. The semi-finals and finals were held in Pauley Pavilion on the campus of UCLA in Los Angeles, California.

Notable events Three of the four team earning a bid to the Final Four did so winning the Regional game on their own floor. The exception, the East Regional was held at a neutral site, the Norfolk Scope, but that was the home town of Old Dominion, who had won 45 consecutive home games, before meeting Cheyney State in the East Regional final. Cheyney State won by a score of 80–71. The win matched them up against the three seed Tennessee, who upset Georgia to win the Mideast Regional. The score of the semi-final was also 80–71, but this time the Lady Vols were the victor.

In 1983, USC and Louisiana Tech met in the National championship game, with USC prevailing. The two teams next played in the regular season in January 1984, with Louisiana Tech beating USC 75–66 in at the home court of La Tech.. In the 1984 Tournament, USC advanced to the Final Four by beating Long Beach State 90–74, in the West Region, while Louisiana Tech beat Texas 85–60, to win the Midwest Regional. This set up a rematch, in the national semifinal. The game was close, and tied at 57 points apiece with under three minutes to go, when Cheryl Miller scored the last five points of the game to help USC advance to the championship game 62–57.

The score of the championship game was reasonably close, 72–61, but according to Sports Illustrated, "USC outscored, out-passed, outdanced and just plain outflashed Tennessee". Led by Cheryl Miller and the McGee twins, Pamela and Paula, USC won its second consecutive National Championship. Helped by the school's proximity to the media outlets, Women's basketball received considerable media coverage, with the three stars of the team participating in many print interviews and almost 75 television appearances.

Records Mary Ostrowski hit nine of nine attempted free throws, the second most for an individual player in a Final Four game, the National Semi-final.

Over the two games of the Final four, she hit 15 of 15, the only player to hit every free throw (minimum 12 attempts) in Final Four games.

Tennessee, as a team, hit nine of nine attempted free throws, the second most for team in a Final Four game, in the National championship game.

Long Beach State scored 22 points in an overtime period, in the West Regional semi-final, the most ever scored in an NCAA tournament overtime period.

Qualifying teams – automatic Thirty-two teams were selected to participate in the 1984 NCAA Tournament. Seventeen conferences were eligible for an automatic bid to the 1984 NCAA tournament. (Not all conference records are available for 1984)

Automatic bids     Record   Qualifying school Conference Regular Season Conference Seed BYU High Country 8 Central Michigan MAC 7 Drake GatewayDrake is recognized in the NCAA record books as having been a member of both the Gateway Collegiate Athletic Conference (Gateway) and Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) in 1984, although the latter did not sponsor women's sports until the 1992–93 school year. The Gateway was founded in 1982 as a women's-only conference parallel to the MVC. In 1985, the Gateway added football as its only men's sport. When the women's side of the Gateway merged into the MVC in 1992, the football side remained in operation, and is now known as the Missouri Valley Football Conference. 7 Georgia SEC 1 Kansas State Big Eight 3 UNLV Pacific Coast 7 Louisville Metro 8 Middle Tennessee State Ohio Valley 6 Montana Mountain West Athletic 4 North Carolina ACC 2 Northeast Louisiana Southland 6 Ohio State Big Ten 5 Old Dominion Sun Belt 1 Oregon Northern Pacific 3 Penn State Atlantic 10 8 St. John's Big East 7 Texas Southwest 2 USC Western Collegiate 1

Qualifying teams – at-large Fifteen additional teams were selected to complete the thirty-two invitations.

At-large bids     Record   Qualifying school Conference Regular Season Conference Seed Alabama SEC 2 Cheyney State Independent 3 Long Beach State Western Collegiate 2 Louisiana Tech Independent 1 LSU SEC 5 Maryland ACC 6 Ole Miss SEC 4 Missouri Big Eight 4 North Carolina State ACC 4 Oregon State Northern Pacific 5 San Diego State Western Collegiate 6 Tennessee SEC 3 Texas Tech Southwest 8 Virginia ACC 5

Bids by conference Seventeen conferences earned an automatic bid. In eleven cases, the automatic bid was the only representative from the conference. Twelve at-large teams were selected from six of the conferences. In addition, three independent (not associated with an athletic conference) teams earned at-large bids. Bids Conference Teams 5 SEC Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss, Tennessee 4

ACC

Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Virginia 3

Western Collegiate

Long Beach State, San Diego State, USC 2

Big 8

Kansas State, Missouri 2

Independent

Cheyney, Louisiana Tech 2

Northern Pacific

Oregon, Oregon State 2

Southwest

Texas, Texas Tech 1

Atlantic 10

Penn State 1

Big East

St. John's 1

Big Ten

Ohio State 1

Gateway

Drake 1

High Country

BYU 1

MAC

Central Michigan 1

Metro

Louisville 1

Mountain West Athletic

Montana 1

Ohio Valley

Middle Tennessee State 1

Pacific Coast

UNLV 1

Southland

Northeast Louisiana 1

Sun Belt

Old Dominion

First round In 1984, the field returned to 32 teams, in the same format as in 1982. The teams were seeded, and assigned to four geographic regions, with seeds 1-8 in each region. In Round 1, the higher seed was given the opportunity to host the first-round game. In most cases, the higher seed accepted the opportunity. The exceptions: Ole Miss was a 4 seed, but unable to host, so the game was played at 5 seed Ohio State Alabama was a 2 seed, but played at Central Michigan, the 7 seed Missouri was a 4 seed, but played at LSU, the 5 seed Kansas State was a 3 seed, but played at Northeast Louisiana, the 6 seed Oregon was a 3 seed, but played at San Diego State, the 6 seed Long Beach State was a 2 seed, playing the 7 seed, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The game was played at the University of Southern California (USC). For this reason there are only 15 first round venues, as all locations hosted one game except the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, home of USC, which hosted two games.

The following table lists the region, host school, venue and the 15 first round locations.

RegionHostVenue City State East

Cheyney University of Pennsylvania

Cope Hall

Cheyney

Pennsylvania East

Old Dominion University

Old Dominion University Fieldhouse

Norfolk

Virginia East

North Carolina State University

Reynolds Coliseum

Raleigh

North Carolina East

University of North Carolina

Carmichael Auditorium

Chapel Hill

North Carolina Mideast

University of Tennessee

Stokely Athletic Center

Knoxville

Tennessee Mideast

University of Georgia

Georgia Coliseum (Stegeman Coliseum)

Athens

Georgia Mideast

Ohio State University

St. John Arena

Columbus

Ohio Mideast

Central Michigan University

Daniel P. Rose Arena (McGuirk Arena)

Mount Pleasant

Michigan Midwest

Louisiana Tech University

Thomas Assembly Center

Ruston

Louisiana Midwest

Louisiana State University

LSU Assembly Center (Pete Maravich Assembly Center)

Baton Rouge

Louisiana Midwest

Northeast Louisiana University

Ewing Coliseum

Monroe

Louisiana Midwest

University of Texas at Austin

Frank Erwin Center

Austin

Texas West

University of Southern California

Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena

Los Angeles

California West

San Diego State University

Peterson Gym

San Diego

California West

University of Montana–Missoula

Dahlberg Arena

Missoula

Montana

Regionals and Final Four

The regionals, named for the general location, were held from March 22 to March 25 at these sites: East Regional Norfolk Scope, Norfolk, Virginia (Host: Old Dominion University) Mideast Regional Stokely Athletic Center, Knoxville, Tennessee (Host: University of Tennessee) Midwest Regional Thomas Assembly Center, Ruston, Louisiana (Host: Louisiana Tech University) West Regional Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, Los Angeles, California (Host: University of California, Los Angeles)

Each regional winner advanced to the Final Four, held March 30 and April 1 in Los Angeles, California at Pauley Pavilion. UCLA served as the host institution.

Bids by state

The thirty-two teams came from twenty-two states. California and Louisiana had the most teams with three each. Twenty-eight states did not have any teams receiving bids.

Bids State Teams 3

California

USC, Long Beach State, San Diego State 3

Louisiana

Northeast Louisiana, Louisiana Tech, LSU 2

North Carolina

North Carolina, North Carolina State 2

Oregon

Oregon, Oregon State 2

Pennsylvania

Penn State, Cheyney 2

Tennessee

Middle Tennessee State, Tennessee 2

Texas

Texas, Texas Tech 2

Virginia

Old Dominion, Virginia 1

Alabama

Alabama 1

Georgia

Georgia 1

Iowa

Drake 1

Kansas

Kansas State 1

Kentucky

Louisville 1

Maryland

Maryland 1

Michigan

Central Michigan 1

Mississippi

Ole Miss 1

Missouri

Missouri 1

Montana

Montana 1

Nevada

UNLV 1

New York

St. John's 1

Ohio

Ohio State 1

Utah

BYU

Brackets

Mideast regional – University of Tennessee - Knoxville, TN (Stokely Athletic Center)

Midwest regional – Louisiana Tech - Ruston, LA (Thomas Assembly Center)

East regional – Old Dominion - Norfolk, VA (Norfolk Scope)

West regional – Los Angeles, CA (Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena)

Final Four – University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA (Pauley Pavilion)

Record by conference Ten conferences had more than one bid, or at least one win in NCAA Tournament play: Conference# of BidsRecordWin %Round of 32Sweet SixteenElite EightFinal FourChampionship Game Southeastern

5

.643

5

5

2

1

1 Atlantic Coast

4

.333

2

2

–

–

– Western Collegiate

3

.800

3

3

2

1

1 Independent

2

.667

2

2

2

2

– Southwest

2

.500

1

1

1

–

– Big Eight

2

–

–

–

–

–

– Northern Pacific

2

–

–

–

–

–

– Sun Belt

1

.667

1

1

1

–

– Mountain West Athletic

1

.500

1

1

–

–

– Southland

1

.500

1

1

–

–

–

Eight conferences went 0–1: Atlantic 10, Big East, Big Ten, High Country, Metro, MAC, Missouri Valley Conference, Ohio Valley Conference, and the Pacific Coast

All-Tournament team

Cheryl Miller, Southern California Paula McGee, Southern California Pam McGee, Southern California Janice Lawrence, Louisiana Tech Mary Ostrowski, Tennessee

Game officials

Tommie Salerno (semifinal) Larry Sheppard (semifinal) Bob Olsen (semifinal, final) Marcy Weston (semifinal, final)

See also 1984 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament 1984 NCAA Division II women's basketball tournament 1984 NCAA Division III women's basketball tournament 1984 NAIA women's basketball tournament

References