The 1998 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament began on March 13, 1998 and concluded on March 29, 1998 when Tennessee won the national title. The Final Four was held at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri on March 27 - March 29, 1998. Tennessee, Louisiana Tech, NC State, and Arkansas qualified to the Final Four. Tennessee and Louisiana Tech won their semi-final Final Four matchups and continued on to the championship. Tennessee defeated Louisiana Tech 93-75 to take their sixth title, and complete an undefeated season (39-0).
For the last time in the men's or women's tournament to date, two teams entered the tournament unbeaten. In the Mideast Regional, the Lady Vols blew out Liberty 102-58. However, in the West Regional, the expected 1-16 blowout did not happen. In that matchup, Harvard defeated #1 seed Stanford on its home court 71-67, the only time in the men's or women's tournament that a 16 has ever beaten a 1. In addition, 9th-seeded Arkansas made the final four, the highest seed ever to do so in the women's tournament.
Read more about 1998 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament: Tournament Records, Qualifying Teams - Automatic, Qualifying Teams - At-large, Bids By Conference, First and Second Rounds, Regionals and Final Four, Bids By State, Record By Conference, All-Tournament Team, Game Officials
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“Perhaps basketball and poetry have just a few things in common, but the most important is the possibility of transcendence. The opposite is labor. In writing, every writer knows when he or she is laboring to achieve an effect. You want to get from here to there, but find yourself willing it, forcing it. The equivalent in basketball is aiming your shot, a kind of strained and usually ineffective purposefulness. What you want is to be in some kind of flow, each next moment a discovery.”
—Stephen Dunn (b. 1939)