Buff Women No. 6 Seed

March 16, 2003

Boulder - For the third year in a row, the Colorado women's basketball team has earned an invitation to the NCAA Tournament. The Buffs drew a No. 6 seed in the Mideast Region and will play No. 11 seed Brigham Young this Saturday, March 22. Times are to be determined.

This marks Colorado's 11th trip to the NCAA Tournament and the third season in a row the Buffs have gone dancing. CU's a No. 6 seed for the second time in three seasons, as they were a No. 6 in the Midwest Region in 2001 and went to Nashville, Tenn. The two other teams coming to Boulder are No. 3 seed North Carolina, the ACC regular-season and tournament runner-up, and No. 14 seed Austin Peay, the champions of the Ohio Valley Conference.

"Obviously we are excited to be back in the NCAA Tournament," said head coach Ceal Barry. "It was a goal that we set at the beginning of the year. There were some doubts as to whether we could get enough wins after losing so many starters from last year to put ourselves in a position to get an at-large bid if were not able to get the automatic bid. So we're excited about it. It never gets old. This is the most fun time of the year and we're looking forward to it."

The Buffaloes are 22-7 on the season and receiving votes in both polls, finishing fourth in the Big 12 Tournament and falling in the conference tournament semifinals on March 13 to Texas. The Buffs are led offensively by Tera Bjorklund (17.9 ppg), Kate Fagan (10.4 ppg) and Sabrina Scott (10.0 ppg). Scott is the team's leading rebounder at 6.9 rpg and assists at 3.0 per outing. Bjorklund is CU's Miss Inside, averaging 54.1-percent shooting per game, while Fagan is Miss Outside with a team high 58-three pointers on the season, shooting 37.2-percent from downtown and 98.4 percent from the charity stripe.

BYU finished 19-11 on the season, 11-1 at home and 8-6 in the Mountain West Conference. They have several common opponents in Texas, Wyoming and Colorado State. The Cougars defeated Big 12 regular season and postseason tournament champion Texas 79-63 in Provo to open their season. They are led by Erin Thorn, who averages 19.1 ppg and shoots 41.1-percent from the three point line with 97 treys on the season.

"I don't know much about BYU," said Barry. "The only thing I know about them is they beat Iowa State on their home floor last year in the NCAA tournament when they had Angie Welle and Tracy Gahan and I know that any team that's capable of doing that is a good basketball team."

Tickets are already available for the NCAA Tournament at www.cubuffs.com. Tickets for all three games for adults start at $24 and students at $12. They are also available by calling 800-87-BUFFS.

Press Conference Quotes
Coach Ceal Barry
On The No. 6 Seed
"I think it's a fair seed. I think that 22 wins in the regular season, we had an excellent non-conference season going 10-1 with the one loss to Villanova who is a No. 2 seed. We strung together some wins in the Big 12, which obviously continues to get respect. So I think it's a fair seed.

On CU's Improvement This Season
"The two games I look at aren't our last couple wins, it's our last couple losses. Last time out it was Texas, having won 18 of last 19 games, and us feeling that if we had done a few things differently we could have extended Texas a little longer, same with Kansas State. I feel like we're playing our best basketball right now."

On NCAA Tourney Staying Power
"It gets increasingly difficult to get a bid and then to progress in the tournament. The exciting part is that each team is a new team. That's the challenge each year. This team is a little different than last year's team. Let's see how far we can go with this year's team and what this team is all about."

On March Madness
"It's the most exciting time of the year for college basketball...March. It's the most exciting time. Hopefully we're not overlooking the fact that we play at home because we might not get the same chance next year."

Colorado University Athletics