The Notre Dame women's basketball team has been predicted to finish 11th in the BIG EAST Conference this season, according to a preseason poll of the league's coaches that was released Thursday at the annual BIG EAST Media Day in New York.

Notre Dame To Host Early Round Games In 2010 NCAA Women's Basketball Championship

July 10, 2006

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame has been selected as one of eight host sites for first- and second-round games in the 2010 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship, it was announced recently. Games will be played at the 11,418-seat Joyce Center on either March 20 & 22 or March 21 & 23, with exact dates and ticket availability for those contests to be released at a later date.

This will mark the sixth time Notre Dame has played host to action in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship, and the second since the tournament began pre-selecting sites in 2003 (first since the current eight-team “pod” format was introduced in 2005). The Joyce Center was home to NCAA tournament action in 1994, 2000, 2001 and 2004 with Notre Dame advancing to the Sweet 16 on three occasions (2000, 2001, 2004) and going on to win its first NCAA title in `01. All told, the Irish are 6-1 in NCAA Championship play on the Joyce Center hardwood, with the only loss being an 81-76 setback to Minnesota in 1994.

In addition, the 1983 NCAA Mideast Regional was played at the Joyce Center — Tennessee defeated Ole Miss, 90-83 in overtime and Georgia ousted Indiana, 86-70 in the regional semifinals before UGa earned a trip to the NCAA Women’s Final Four with a 67-63 victory over UT.

“This is a very exciting and rewarding announcement for all of us in the Irish women’s basketball program,” Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw said. “We’re grateful to our entire athletics administration, especially (director of athletics) Kevin White and (associate athletics director) Mike Karwoski, for helping to make this selection possible. We have had tremendous success hosting NCAA tournament games in the past and we’re looking forward to bringing that excitement here once again in 2010. This community has been home to the most passionate and loyal fans in the country and their support through the years has been particularly gratifying, so we share this reward with them and look forward to seeing the Joyce Center stands filled with thousands of the Irish faithful in 2010.”

Notre Dame has been ranked in the Top 20 in the final NCAA attendance standings each of the past six seasons, including an 11th-place finish in 2005-06 (6,601 fans per game), as well as school-record eighth-place showings in both 2001-02 (7,825) and 2002-03 (7,132).

Besides Notre Dame, the following locations also were chosen as host sites for first- and second-round games in the 2010 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship:
* Austin, Texas (Frank Erwin Special Events Center — University of Texas, host)
* Berkeley, Calif. (Haas Pavilion — University of California, host)
* Knoxville, Tenn. (Thompson-Boling Arena — University of Tennessee, host)
* Minneapolis, Minn. (Williams Arena — University of Minnesota, host)
* Norfolk, Va. (Ted Constant Convocation Center — Old Dominion University, host)
* Tempe, Ariz. (Wells Fargo Arena — Arizona State University, host)
* Trenton, N.J. (Sovereign Bank Arena — Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference/Rider University, co-hosts)

In addition, the following were selected to play host to regional games in the 2010 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship:
* Dayton, Ohio (University of Dayton Arena — University of Dayton, host)
* Kansas City, Mo. (Sprint Center — Big XII Conference, host)
* Memphis, Tenn. (FedEx Forum — University of Memphis, host)
* Sacramento, Calif. (ARCO Arena — University of the Pacific, host)

The NCAA previously announced that the next five years will see the NCAA Women’s Final Four contested at the following locations:
* 2007 — Cleveland, Ohio (Quicken Loans Arena — Cleveland State University/Mid-American Conference, co-hosts)
* 2008 — Tampa, Fla. (St. Pete Times Forum — University of South Florida, host)
* 2009 — St. Louis, Mo. (Edward Jones Dome — Missouri Valley Conference, host)
* 2010 — San Antonio, Texas (Alamodome — University of Texas-San Antonio, host)
* 2011 — Indianapolis, Ind. (RCA Dome — Butler University/Horizon League, co-hosts)

— ND —