1987 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament

The 1987 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament began on March 11, ended on March 29, and featured 40 teams. The Final Four were Texas, Tennessee, Louisiana Tech, and Long Beach State, with Tennessee winning its first title with a 67–44 victory over Louisiana Tech. Tennessee's Tonya Edwards was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.

Notable events Upsets were not unknown in the NCAA tournaments. For example, in the prior year, two 4 seeds made it to the Final Four. However, in the first five NCAA tournaments, once a team reached the Final Four, no team had beaten a higher seeded team. That changed in 1987.

One semifinal game matched defending National Champion Texas against Louisiana Tech. Although both teams were 1 seeds, the Texas team came into the tournament with only a single regular season loss, earning them the number one ranking in the country. In addition, the Final Four was played on the home court of the Longhorns. Despite that, and a crowd of over 15 thousand, the largest crowd in the history of the sport, the Louisiana Tech team managed to beat the Texas team 79–75. The Lady Techsters hit 58.3% of their field goals, the fourth best performance in NCAA Final Four history, and a blistering 73.9% in the second half, missing only six of the 23 shots taken in the second half. Texas tried to wear down Teresa Weatherspoon, but set an NCAA Final Four record with eleven assists, while putting in 19 points of her own.

The other semifinal game matched 2 seed Tennessee against 1 seed Long Beach State. Although Long Beach was averaging over 96 points per game, and had scored 102 in the West Regional final against Ohio State, the Lady Vols held the team to 64 points, and upset the 1 seed by a score of 74–64.

The lone loss by Texas in the regular season had been to Tennessee, ending the Longhorns 40 game win streak, but the two teams played again two weeks later, and this time Texas emerged victorious, with a 14-point victory. Tennessee earned the number one ranking in the AP vote after the win over Texas, but they began to stumble after the loss to Texas, with losses to Auburn, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt. They played Louisiana Tech in February, and the lady Techsters won by nine points, dropping the Lady Vols to ninth in the poll. The Tennessee team earned a 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but after their upset win against Long Beach, they faced the Louisiana Tech team again, a team that had beaten the Volunteers in 11 of the last 12 meetings. One of those meetings had been the 1981 AIAW National Championship game, when the Lady Techsters beat the Volunteers by 20 points. The 1987 Championship would turn that result on its head, as Tennessee won by 23 points, upsetting Louisiana Tech 67–44, for their first National Championship.

This was the last time Stanford did not appear in the NCAA Tournament until 2025 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament.

Records Teresa Weatherspoon recorded 11 assists in the National Semifinal game, the most scored in a Final Four game since they started keeping records of this statistic in 1985.

Qualifying teams – automatic Forty teams were selected to participate in the 1987 NCAA Tournament. Eighteen conferences were eligible for an automatic bid to the 1987 NCAA tournament.

Automatic bids     Record   Qualifying school Conference Regular Season Conference Seed Auburn University SEC 1 Bowling Green State University MAC 9 Eastern Washington University Mountain West 10 James Madison University Colonial 4 University of Kansas Big Eight 7 California State University, Long Beach Pacific Coast 7 Manhattan College MAAC 10 New Mexico State University High Country 9 North Carolina State University ACC 3 Northeast Louisiana Southland Conference 10 Ohio State University Big Ten 2 Old Dominion University Sun Belt Conference 5 Rutgers University Atlantic 10 2 University of Southern California Pac-10 3 Southern Illinois University Carbondale Missouri Valley Conference 5 University of Southern Mississippi Metro 10 Tennessee Technological University Ohio Valley Conference 7 University of Texas at Austin Southwest 1 Villanova University Big East 6

Qualifying teams – at-large Twenty-two additional teams were selected to complete the forty invitations.

At-large bids     Record   Qualifying school Conference Regular Season Conference Seed Duke University Atlantic Coast 7 University of Georgia Southeastern 2 University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign Big Ten 8 University of Iowa Big Ten 3 Kansas State University Big Eight 8 Louisiana State University Southeastern 4 Louisiana Tech University Independent 1 University of Memphis Metro 6 University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) Southeastern 4 University of New Orleans Independent 6 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Atlantic Coast 4 Northwestern University Big Ten 9 University of Oregon Pacific-10 7 Pennsylvania State University Atlantic 10 5 Saint Joseph's University Atlantic 10 9 University of South Alabama Sun Belt 8 University of Tennessee Southeastern 2 Vanderbilt University Southeastern 5 University of Virginia Atlantic Coast 3 University of Washington Pacific-10 8 Western Kentucky University Sun Belt 6

Bids by conference Nineteen conferences earned an automatic bid. In eleven cases, the automatic bid was the only representative from the conference. Nineteen at-large teams were selected from eight of the conferences. In addition, two independent (not associated with an athletic conference) teams earned at-large bids. Bids Conference Teams 6

Southeastern

Auburn, Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Vanderbilt 4

Big Ten

Illinois, Iowa, Northwestern, Ohio St. 4

Atlantic Coast

Duke, North Carolina, North Carolina St., Virginia 3

Sun Belt

Old Dominion, South Ala., Western Kentucky 3

Pacific-10

Oregon, Southern California, Washington 3

Atlantic 10

Penn St., Rutgers, St. Joseph's 2

Metro

Memphis, Southern Miss. 2

Independent

Louisiana Tech, New Orleans 2

Big Eight

Kansas, Kansas St. 1

Southwest

Texas 1

Pacific Coast

Long Beach St. 1

Ohio Valley

Tennessee Tech 1

Mountain West

Eastern Washington 1

Missouri Valley

Southern Ill. 1

Mid-American

Bowling Green 1

Metro Atlantic

Manhattan 1

High Country

New Mexico St. 1

Gulf Star

Northwestern St. 1

Colonial

James Madison 1

Big East

Villanova

First and second rounds In 1987, the field remained at 40 teams. The teams were seeded, and assigned to four geographic regions, with seeds 1–10 in each region. In Round 1, seeds 8 and 9 faced each other for the opportunity to face the 1 seed in the second round, while seeds 7 and 10 faced each other for the opportunity to face the 2 seed. In the first two rounds, the higher seed was given the opportunity to host the first-round game. In most cases, the higher seed accepted the opportunity. The exceptions: Eighth seeded South Alabama played nine seed Saint Joseph's (PA) at Saint Joseph's (PA) Seventh seeded Eastern Washington played tenth seeded University of Oregon at University of Oregon Second seeded Ohio State played tenth seeded University of Oregon at University of Oregon Third seeded North Carolina State played sixth seeded Villanova at Villanova

Because Oregon hosted both a first and second-round game, there were only 23 first and second round locations, rather than 24.

The following table lists the region, host school, venue and the twenty-four first round locations:

Region RndHostVenue City State East 1 Saint Joseph's University Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse Philadelphia Pennsylvania East 1 Duke University Cameron Indoor Stadium Durham North Carolina East

2

University of Texas

Frank Erwin Center

Austin

Texas East

2

Rutgers University

Louis Brown Athletic Center

Piscataway

New Jersey East

2

James Madison University

James Madison University Convocation Center

Harrisonburg

Virginia East

2

Villanova University

The Pavilion

Villanova

Pennsylvania Mideast

1

University of Illinois

Assembly Hall (Champaign)

Champaign

Illinois Mideast

1

Tennessee Tech

Eblen Center

Cookeville

Tennessee Mideast

2

University of North Carolina

Carmichael Auditorium

Chapel Hill

North Carolina Mideast

2

Auburn University

Memorial Coliseum (Beard–Eaves–Memorial Coliseum)

Auburn

Alabama Mideast

2

University of Tennessee

Stokely Athletic Center

Knoxville

Tennessee Mideast

2

University of Virginia

University Hall (University of Virginia)

Charlottesville

Virginia Midwest

1

Northwestern University

Welsh-Ryan Arena

Evanston

Illinois Midwest

2

University of Iowa

Carver–Hawkeye Arena

Iowa City

Iowa Midwest

2

University of Louisiana at Monroe

Ewing Coliseum

Monroe

Louisiana Midwest

2

University of Georgia

Georgia Coliseum (Stegeman Coliseum)

Athens

Georgia Midwest

2

Louisiana State University

LSU Assembly Center (Pete Maravich Assembly Center)

Baton Rouge

Louisiana Midwest

2

Louisiana Tech University

Thomas Assembly Center

Ruston

Louisiana West

1

University of Washington

Hec Edmundson Pavilion

Seattle

Washington West

1

University of Oregon

McArthur Court

Eugene

Oregon West 2 University of Southern California Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena Los Angeles California West 2 University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) Tad Smith Coliseum Oxford

Mississippi West 2 Long Beach State University Gym (Gold Mine) Long Beach California

Regionals and Final Four

The regionals, named for the general location, were held from March 19 to March 22 at these sites: Mideast Regional Stokely Athletics Center, Knoxville, Tennessee (Host: University of Tennessee) Midwest Regional Ewing Coliseum, Monroe, Louisiana (Host: University of Louisiana at Monroe) West Regional Pauley Pavilion, Los Angeles (Host: University of Southern California) East Regional Cumberland County Memorial Arena, Fayetteville, North Carolina

Each regional champion advanced to the Final Four at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas. The University of Texas served as the host institution.

Bids by state

The forty teams came from twenty states. Louisiana and Tennessee had the most teams with four each. Thirty states did not have any teams receiving bids.

Bids State Teams 4

Louisiana

Northwestern St., LSU, Louisiana Tech, New Orleans 4

Tennessee

Tennessee Tech, Memphis, Tennessee, Vanderbilt 3

Illinois

Southern Ill., Illinois, Northwestern 3

North Carolina

North Carolina St., Duke, North Carolina 3

Pennsylvania

Villanova, Penn St., St. Joseph's 3

Virginia

James Madison, Old Dominion, Virginia 2

Alabama

Auburn, South Ala. 2

California

Southern California, Long Beach St. 2

Kansas

Kansas, Kansas St. 2

Mississippi

Ole Miss, Southern Miss. 2

Ohio

Bowling Green, Ohio St. 2

Washington

Eastern Washington, Washington 1

Georgia

Georgia 1

Iowa

Iowa 1

Kentucky

Western Kentucky 1 New Jersey

Rutgers 1

New Mexico

New Mexico St. 1

New York

Manhattan 1

Oregon

Oregon 1

Texas

Texas

Brackets First and second-round games played at higher seed except where noted.

East regional – Fayetteville, North Carolina (Cumberland County Memorial Arena)

Midwest regional – Northeast Louisiana University – Monroe, Louisiana (Fant–Ewing Coliseum)

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

West regional – University of Southern California – Los Angeles (Pauley Pavilion)

Final Four – University of Texas – Austin, Texas (Frank Erwin Center)

Record by conference Fifteen 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

6

.643

6

4

2

1

1 Big Ten

4

.600

4

2

2

–

– Atlantic Coast

4

.429

4

2

–

–

– Atlantic 10

3

.500

3

1

1

–