holy toledo! rockets win wnit championship

The Toledo Rockets women's basketball team will be at Savage Arena again on Thursday.

This time, the Rockets will not be playing any games. They're going to hold a community celebration on their WNIT championship on Saturday, the first postseason title in school history.

Toledo fans will get to listen to fans and players talk about their historic run to the WNIT title. The Rockets won all six WNIT games at Savage Arena, including a 76-68 win over USC in the championship game on Saturday.

When the Rockets opened their season on Nov. 12 at home against St. Francis (Pa.) in opening-round Preseason WNIT game, only 845 people showed up.

When Toledo opened its Postseason WNIT tournament play on March 16 with a 58-55 win over Delaware, a total of 1,245 people were in attendance.

Suddenly, as Toledo kept winning, more fans started showing up to Savage Arena. The Rockets had a total of 25,669 fans in their six WNIT games at home, including a school-record 7,301 in Saturday's championship game with USC.

Toledo also had wins over Auburn, Alabama, Syracuse and Charlotte in the tournament. With the victory over USC, the Rockets prevented the Pac-10 (it will become the Pac-12 next year) from winning a WNIT title for the second year in a row. California won it last year, but was eliminated in the second round this year.

Overall, Toledo turned in a brilliant home season, going 19-1 and averaging 3,078 fans a game at Savage Arena. Missouri State handed the Rockets' only home loss on Nov. 20.

Melissa Goodall and Jessica Williams are Toledo's only seniors. They combined to score 15 points against the USC.

But the top player for Toledo was junior Naama Shafir. The guard from Israel scored a game-high 40 points and finished as the team's leading scorer at 15.3 points per game.

Toledo finished its season at 29-8. The Rockets' NCAA tournament hopes were diminished on March 11, when they lost to Eastern Michigan in the Mid-American Conference semifinals.

Four months ago, Toledo was eliminated by eventual champion Purdue in the Preseason WNIT quarterfinals. On Saturday, the Rockets made sure they wouldn't leave Savage Arena empty-handed.

"Even though we would have loved to be part of the NCAA Tournament, this may have been the best thing to ever happen to our program," Toledo coach Tricia Cullop told the Toledo Independent Collegian on Monday. "We got to be part of a national tournament and our fans got to enjoy all of this with us."

On Thursday, the Toledo fans will get to celebrate the WNIT title with the players and coaches one final time.

gig this: aggies are champions!

The national championships are continuing to pile up at Texas A&M University.

Since 2009, the school from College Station has won six national titles, including one in women's basketball on Tuesday.

The Aggies' women's basketball team captured its first national crown in program history with a 76-70 victory over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Texas A&M closed out the game with a 10-4 run.

With Tuesday's win, Texas A&M now has a total of 11 national titles. The women's basketball team joins the men's and women's track and field, softball, football, men's golf and equestrian teams as the only Texas A&M programs to win national titles. The men's and women's outdoor track and field teams won back-to-back national titles in 2009 and 2010 and the men's golf team captured a crown in 2009. The football team, which is Texas A&M's most popular sport, won its only title in 1939. Texas A&M's softball squad won titles in 1982, 1983 and 1987 and the equestrian team won it all in 2002.

Texas A&M became the first Big 12 school to win the national title since Baylor in 2005. Ironically, the Bears won their first and only national championship in Indianapolis. The Aggies also became the fourth Texas school to win a women's basketball national title, joining Baylor (2005), Texas Tech (1993) and Texas (1986).

"We were not going to lose this game," Texas A&M senior Danielle Adams told the Texas A&M Battalion on Wednesday. "We've fought hard from day one at 6 a.m. to practice and worked hard through this whole season to prepare for this point."

The Aggies also prevented Notre Dame from becoming the first school in 19 years to win a national title in its home state. The Irish, who beat powerhouses Tennessee and UConn to reach the national championship game, finished 31-7.

The win on Tuesday was a good ending for Texas A&M seniors Adams, Sydney Colson, Maryann Baker and Catherine Snow.

Adams played at Jefferson College (Mo.) for two years before joining Texas A&M last year. When she was a sophomore, Adams helped Jefferson reach the JUCO national championship game. On Tuesday, she scored 22 of her game-high 30 points in the second half and earned the tournament's Most Outstanding Player honors.

Colson bounced back from foul trouble in the first half to finish with 10 points and five assists. Colson played for Texas A&M all four years and was named team captain in her sophomore and junior seasons.

Two years ago, Baker suffered a season-ending shoulder injury. Now, she's part of a championship team. The Dallas native played 10 minutes and scored two points. Baker earned first-team all-Big 12 Academic honors.

Snow played in her second and final season with the Aggies. She played in nine games this year. While attending Troy High School in Temple, Texas, Snow lettered in five sports -- basketball, volleyball, softball, cross country and track.

Texas A&M beat McNeese State and Rutgers in the first and second round at Shreveport, La. Then, the Aggies beat Georgia and Baylor in the Dallas Regional to advance to the Final Four for the first time. Texas A&M advanced to the title game by upsetting Stanford in the national semifinals.

With the win over Notre Dame on Tuesday, the Aggies finished 3-0 against Big East opponents this season.

The third win turned out to be an historic one for Texas A&M.

irish returns to final four

A week ago, the Notre Dame men's fencing team won its eighth national championship.

This week, the Fighting Irish are looking to add another national title to their trophy case, this time in women's basketball.

Notre Dame is playing in its third Final Four and its first in 2001. The Irish are playing UConn in the national semifinals, the fourth time the two teams will square off this season.

Notre Dame is looking to win its second national championship. The Irish won it all in 2001 in St. Louis. That year, the school beat UConn in the national semifinals before beating Purdue in the title game.

If Notre Dame wins it again, it will become the third school (Stanford in 1992 and USC in 1984) to win a national championship at its home state. Notre Dame is just 147 miles from Indianapolis.

"We do get to get on a bus instead of a plane which is kind of nice but other than that we're going to be staying in a hotel in a different city," Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw told the Notre Dame Observer on Thursday.

The Irish earned a trip to Indy by beating Tennessee in the Dayton Regional championship game on Monday, making them the 10th team to play in the Final Four at their home state. Baylor was the last team to accomplish that feat in 2010 in San Antonio.

Notre Dame is looking to become the first at-large team to win a national championship since Maryland in 2006.

But first, the Irish have to get past UConn, who beat Notre Dame three times this season.

uconn shoots for three-peat

Can it happen again?

Can UConn pull off another double, just like it did in 2004?

The Huskies are getting closer of doing just that. The UConn men's team is one victory away from its third national championship after beating Kentucky on Saturday in the national semifinals in Houston.

About 1,160 miles away, the UConn women is looking to win its third consecutive national championship. The Huskies will play Big East rival Notre Dame in the national semifinals on Sunday in Indianapolis.

It's the third time UConn had both its men's and women's teams in the Final Four in the same year. In 2009, the UConn men's team lost in the national semifinals in Detroit and the women's squad won the national title in St. Louis. In 2004, the men's and women's teams won national titles in San Antonio and New Orleans, respectively.

A total of seven schools had both men's and women's teams in the Final Four. Georgia became the first school to accomplish that feat in 1983.

On Tuesday, Baylor and Texas A&M played for the fourth time this season when the two teams squared off in the Dallas Regional championship game.

On Sunday, UConn will play Notre Dame for the fourth time this season. The Huskies won all three meetings, including the Big East title game.

The Huskies are playing in their fourth straight Final Four. During its Final Four trips the last four years, UConn, which is located in Storrs, Ct., has traveled a total of 5,318 miles. Indianapolis is 860 miles from the UConn campus, making it the shortest Final Four trip for the Huskies during that four-year span. A year ago, UConn made the 2,029-mile trek to San Antonio and won the national title.

So far, the Huskies haven't lost in the 2011 portion of the women's basketball season. UConn had its 90-game winning streak snapped by Stanford two days before New Year's Day.

When UConn became the first Division I team to win the men's and women's basketball championships in the same year in 2004, Diana Taurasi was the best player on the women's team.

Now, Maya Moore is the best player on the UConn women's team. On Saturday, she became the first three-time winner of the Wade Trophy, awarded to the most outstanding player in women's basketball.

Lorin Dixon is the other senior on the UConn team. Like Moore, she played in the last three Final Fours.

The Huskies will take a 36-1 record into Sunday's game with Notre Dame. They advanced to their fourth straight Final Four by beating Duke 75-40 in the Philadelphia Regional championship game on Tuesday.

Moore scored her 3,000th career point against Duke.

"I don't really think about it right now," Moore told the UConn Daily Campus on Wednesday. "Of course, it's really exciting to be able to be at a program where I've been able to flourish."

Now, Moore is looking to end her career with a flourish. All she needs is two more wins.

aggies set for stanford

In the 29-year history of the NCAA women's basketball tournament, three Texas schools -- Baylor, Texas and Texas Tech -- have won national titles, which is more than any other state.

Now, Texas A&M is looking to become the fourth Texas school to win a championship. The Aggies are making their first Final Four appearance and will face Stanford in the semifinals on Sunday at Indianapolis.

"When we go to the Final four, what we're going to have to do is put our cell phones away, quit saying hello and goodbye to all our family," Texas A&M coach Gary Blair told the Texas A&M Battalion on Thursday. "We're honored to get to the Final Four, but it will not be worth it if we do not win it."

Texas A&M qualified for the Final Four by beating Baylor in the Dallas Regional finals on Tuesday. The Aggies beat the Bears for the first time this season after losing the first three contests.

Baylor won its first and only national title in 2005 in Indianapolis. Texas became the first Texas school to win a national title in 1986. Texas Tech, behind Sheryl Swoopes' 47 points in the national championship game, won it all in 1993.

Blair will make his second Final Four appearance. In 1998, he coached the Arkansas Razorbacks to their first and only Final Four trip in 1998 at Kansas City. But they lost to Tennessee in the national semifinals.

In order for the Aggies to clear the national semifinal hurdle on Sunday, they have to get past a Stanford team that is making its fourth straight Final Four apperance and is looking to win its first national title since 1992.

Texas A&M is also looking to become the first at-large team to win a national title since Maryland in 2006. The Aggies finished second to Baylor in the Big 12 regular season standings and lost to the Bears in the conference championship game.