WOMEN’S FINAL FOUR

This is Stanford’s fifth Final Four visit in seven years. The Cardinal is the only team to play in five Final Fours in the ‘90s and has reached the final eight in seven of the last eight years.

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Both sessions Friday and Sunday in the 22,949-seat Charlotte Coliseum were sold out a year ago. Next year’s Final Four at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Coliseum sold out in six hours when tickets went on sale March 3.

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Stanley will be adrift after April 30, her one-year contract up. The former USC coach has been mentioned as a head coach candidate at California and Florida State.

She is also considered a logical choice to coach in the new women’s pro league, the American Basketball League, which will have a San Jose franchise. The league, based in Palo Alto, is planning on a season from next April to August.

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This will be the first Final Four with a day off between the semifinals and the final. Under the previous broadcast arrangement, CBS forced the women to play on consecutive days. Under its new seven-year deal with ESPN, the NCAA secured a Final Four day off.

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Tennessee and Connecticut, who will play Thursday in a national semifinal game, finished 1-2 in women’s attendance this year.

UConn’s paid attendance averaged 8,183 in an 8,300-seat arena, and Tennessee averaged 8,042 in its 25,000-seat facility.

The rest of the top 10: Texas Tech (7,935), Wisconsin (7,884), Texas (7,495), Penn State (7,448), Southwest Missouri State (7,108), Purdue (6,520), Vanderbilt (5,877), Iowa (5,265).

The regular season’s top crowd: 15,187, at Nashville, for Tennessee-Vanderbilt Feb. 25.

The case of Texas Tech is interesting: The Lady Red Raiders (27-5) outdrew the Texas Tech men (30-2), who averaged 7,630.

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This Final Four field--Connecticut, Tennessee, Stanford, Georgia--is the same as last year’s, the first time that’s happened in the 15 years of the tournament.