UConn Who? In Women’s Basketball, the West Emerges From the Shadows

Tara VanDerveer, the Stanford women’s basketball coach, threw out an outlandish challenge to her peers during a banquet at the end of the Pac-12 Conference’s media day this fall.

“I basically said, ‘Hey, our goal is to have four teams at the Final Four,’” VanDerveer recalled recently.

The idea would seem audacious, if not ludicrous, in any N.C.A.A. sport, but especially in women’s basketball, which has long been ruled by teams east of the Rockies — most notably the one in the Connecticut backyard of ESPN. The last team from the Far West to win the title was VanDerveer’s Stanford squad in 1992.

Since then, UConn has captured 11 titles, Tennessee has claimed five, Baylor three and Notre Dame two. Lately, South Carolina and Maryland have outdone almost every team in the West, too.

Source: The New York Times

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