ACC builds women's powerhouse

When the NCAA women's basketball tournament begins Saturday, it should feel like home to the teams of the Atlantic Coast Conference. No.1 seeds North Carolina (29-1) and Duke (26-3) and No.2 seed Maryland (28-4) have played in a postseason atmosphere for the last few months in a league with an NCAA-high seven women's tournament entries.

"I've coached in the BigTen and Big12, and never have I seen a year like this," says Maryland coach Brenda Frese, whose Terrapins went 2-3 against the top seeds.

"Look at our ACC tournament. We played what was then the second-ranked team in the country in Duke in the semifinals, and less than 24 hours later we played No.1 North Carolina. It's phenomenal. This conference race has really prepared us."

A strong argument can be made this isn't just the best conference in the country -- the Tar Heels and Blue Devils are 11-0 against the field outside their league -- but the best the ACC has fielded. Of the eight losses combined among North Carolina, Duke and Maryland, all but one have come in round-robin play among themselves.

"It's all recruiting," says Tennessee coach Pat Summitt, whose then-No.1 Lady Vols beat Maryland 80-75 in November but were routed by Duke 75-53 in January. "Not just a Duke or North Carolina. You've got Maryland in the mix. The people at the top have forced everyone else to elevate their intensity and recruiting, and that enhances their opportunity to compete at a different level."

The ball began rolling with the arrival of Bernadette McGlade as ACC associate commissioner of women's basketball in 1997. The former Tar Heels player from 1977-80, who also is the school's all-time leading rebounder, was hired by ACC Commissioner John Swofford to oversee the growth of women's basketball. The sport needed more than money; it required marketing expertise, better organization and a vision. McGlade points to Swofford and commitment from member schools and their staffs for making the ACC such a success, but a former rival suggests McGlade's significance cannot be overstated.

"She's an amazing woman, and she has a great sense of history," says ESPN analyst Nancy Lieberman, a star at Old Dominion who played against McGlade. "She understands the history of the game and the growth of the game, and that has a lot to do with where the conference is today. You're building a business, and she has built that infrastructure. They wouldn't be where they are without her."

This is the first time the ACC has had more than one top seed in the NCAA tournament. It's also the first time in the final regular-season writers' poll (since the women's tournament was sanctioned by the NCAA 25 years ago) and the USA TODAY/ESPN Coaches' Poll that three of the top four teams are from the same conference.

Not since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1994, when North Carolina won the ACC's only national title, has a conference had two No.1 seeds and a No.2.

In recent years, the Duke Blue Devils were the ACC's primary dominant force -- reaching three of the last seven Final Fours -- but they weren't as prepared for the rigors of the postseason as now.

"There were several years where we really dominated and didn't lose any games for a couple of years. I don't know how good that was for us because we weren't tested on a daily basis," Duke coach Gail Goestenkors says.

Her team went undefeated in the ACC from 2001-03 and won a record 51 consecutive league games.

"Now you're forced to be ready to play every night," Goestenkors says.

Steady growth in attendance

McGlade played in the first ACC women's tournament, in 1978 at the University of Virginia campus where only 2,750 total attended all three rounds of games. "We were just glad we were on a court and could play and had an ACC tournament like the men," she says.

That has changed for the better.

"We're now seeing that commitment over time bearing fruit. It's a real commitment those athletic departments have made to women's basketball," Swofford says.

"There's a good message in all of this that the investment has been made, quality coaches have been hired, they're recruiting outstanding players. You're seeing some significantly increased attendance."

When Maryland hosted Duke in a regular-season game last year, it was before an ACC-record crowd of 17,243. The conference tournament also set a record with 48,108 total in Greensboro, N.C.

This year the Greensboro tournament was sold out for the semifinals (10,019) and final (10,746).

When North Carolina hosted a rematch with Duke in their second No.1 vs. No. 2 matchup Feb. 25, it marked the first advanced sell-out for a Tar Heels women's game. There was a standing-room-only crowd of 8,305 at Carmichael Auditorium.

"I'm not surprised. We are growing at a really steady rate. It's very predictable right now," McGlade says. "It's because of everyone from our marketing department to coaches running their programs. Everybody is doing their part.

"Every day I wake, I ask myself, 'What can I do to improve ACC women's basketball.'"

Television exposure is vital

Duke is the only team from the ACC that has made the Final Four since 2000. The Blue Devils were the last ACC team to make the national championship game, too, in a 1999 loss to Purdue.

That game, however, proved to be the turning point in landing blue-chip prospects for Duke. Goestenkors points to TV exposure as the fulcrum that has lifted not just her program but the entire league to new heights.

"I think we have the best TV package overall as far as most games. People across the nation have an opportunity to see us," she says.

According to league figures, the ACC has gone from seven nationally televised games in 1995-96 to 28 in 2004-05. It had 103 total national and regional TV appearances last year, more than double from 10 years ago.

"When we went to the Final Four in '99, nobody knew who Duke women's basketball was," Goestenkors says. "But it was a snowball effect. So many recruits saw us on TV when we were able to beat Tennessee in the semifinal to get there, and we piggybacked off that for our best recruiting class ever."

The Blue Devils landed All-Americans Alana Beard and Iciss Tillis, who led them to Final Fours in 2002 and 2003. Last season two players on the USA TODAY All-USA team chose ACC schools: Marissa Coleman (Maryland) and Abby Waner (Duke). Of the second- and third-team selections, three of the 10 chose ACC schools.

Five players from the 2004 team, most notably Crystal Langhorne (Maryland), also selected ACC schools. That's the most for any two-year period for the ACC since the teams' inception in 1983.

"It all gets back to recruiting," Goestenkors says. "Now year-in and year-out (the ACC has) teams that have top-10 recruiting classes. That's when you develop a powerhouse."

Lieberman knows the effect is widespread.

"The whole conference has been upgrading," she says. "There was a time people were pointing to the ACC that it's not getting it done.

"Look at the young new coaches in this league, like Brenda Frese at Maryland and Sue Semrau at Florida State. They're challenging the veteran coaches. They're young and feisty and making the veterans like Sylvia Hatchell (UNC) and Kay Yow (North Carolina State) feisty. "The ACC is full of great schools. Why wouldn't you want to go there?"

Contributing: Dick Patrick

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