2013 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament


The 2013 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament was played from March 23 through April 9, 2013. Tennessee continued its streak of making every NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament at 32 consecutive appearances. Kansas made the Regional Semifinals for the second year in a row as a double-digit seed, UConn made it into the Final Four for the sixth consecutive year, the longest such streak, and Louisville became the first team seeded lower than fourth in a region to advance to the championship game. For the first time in tournament history, the same four teams were #1 seeds as in the previous year.

Subregionals

The format is similar to the Men's Tournament, except that there are 64 teams; this in turn means there is no "First Four" round. Thirty-one automatic bids for conference champions and 33 at-large bids were available.
The subregionals were played from March 23 through March 26.
Sites chosen to host first- and second-round games in 2013 include:
The Regionals, named for the city rather than the region of geographic importance since 2005, held from March 30 to April 2, were at these sites:
A regional had been scheduled at Sun National Bank Center in Trenton, New Jersey. However, the NCAA moved the regional to Connecticut because of a recently passed state law allowing single-game betting for professional and collegiate games. NCAA rules do not allow tournament events to be held in states that allow single-game betting.
The Final Four was held on April 7 & 9 at the New Orleans Arena in New Orleans, hosted by the University of New Orleans. This was the third time the Final Four was played in New Orleans. The event was held in New Orleans in 1991, at the Kiefer Lakefront UNO Arena. The event returned to New Orleans in 2004, when the games were held at the New Orleans Arena.

Tournament records

Automatic qualifiers

The following teams were automatic qualifiers for the 2013 NCAA field by virtue of winning their conference's tournament.
ConferenceSchoolLast Appearance# of Appearances
America East20122
Atlantic 10200012
ACC201220
Atlantic Sun20113
Big 12Baylor201212
Big East201220
Big Sky201120
Big South201215
Big Ten201223
Big WestNever1
ColonialDelaware20124
C-USA20062
Horizon201214
Ivy League20124
MAAC20129
MAC19843
MEAC20127
Missouri ValleyNever1
Mountain West20125
NortheastNever1
Ohio Valley20123
Pac-12201227
Patriot20123
SEC201210
Southern201011
Southland20086
SWAC20125
Summit20125
Sun Belt201216
West CoastGonzaga20126
WAC19852

Tournament seeds

Kentucky vs. Navy, Oklahoma State vs. Duke, and Notre Dame vs. Iowa aired on ESPNU. Purdue vs. Louisville aired on ESPNEWS. All other first and second round games aired on ESPN2

Game summaries

Oklahoma City Regional

Almost all first-round games were won by the higher-seeded team except for Creighton, the 10 seed who upset Syracuse 61–56. The top seed, Baylor won easily, by 42 points over Prairie View A&M. The only other game within single digit margin was 6 seed Oklahoma beating Central Michigan by five points.
In the second round, three of the four games followed expectations, with the only upset being the 5 seed Louisville over 4 seed Purdue. In the third round, 2 seed Tennessee beat 6 seed Oklahoma as expected, but Louisville upset top seeded Baylor in a result some have called one of the greatest upsets in women's basketball history. Baylor won the National Championship in 2012, going undefeated during the season, and had returned every starter. While they lost one game in the current regular season, point guard Odyssey Sims was injured early in that game. The team had not lost a game in two years when playing at full strength. Louisville, the third best team in the Big East, hit sixteen of 25 three-point attempts, and held Griner to 14 points, after she had averaged 33 points in the first two games.

Bracket

* – Denotes overtime period

Oklahoma City Regional

Spokane Regional

Norfolk Regional

Bridgeport Regional

Final Four – New Orleans, Louisiana

All-Tournament Team

Television

had US television rights to all games during the tournament. For the first and second round, ESPN aired select games nationally on ESPN, ESPNU, or ESPNews. All other games were aired regionally on ESPN or ESPN2 and streamed online via ESPN3. Most of the nation got whip-a-round coverage during this time, which allowed ESPN to rotate between the games and focus the nation on the one that was the closest. The regional semifinals were split between ESPN and ESPN2, and ESPN aired the regional finals, national semifinals, and championship match.

Studio host and analysts

First & Second Rounds Saturday/Monday
Sweet Sixteen & Elite Eight Saturday/Monday
Final Four
First & Second Rounds Sunday/Tuesday
Sweet Sixteen & Elite Eight Sunday/Tuesday
Championship
had exclusive radio rights from the regional finals on through the championship.
Regional Finals Monday
Final Four
Regional Finals Tuesday
Championship