USC Has Eyes on 2005 Final Four

Where was the last women’s Final Four basketball tournament that did not sell out?

Los Angeles, 1992.

Since then, when a Stanford-Western Kentucky championship game was played before 12,072 at the 15,800-seat Sports Arena, every Final Four has sold out, the last seven years in advance.

Los Angeles may get a chance at redemption.

USC wants to host a Staples Center Final Four in 2005, the first year for which no site has been designated.

“We want to do this, but we’re very early in the process,” said Lisa Love, USC associate athletic director. “We haven’t even talked to the Staples people.

“We haven’t ruled anything out, including co-hosting it with UCLA. And maybe involving the Sparks. But we’re going to go for it.”

The 19,980-seat arena would be available for a 2005 Final Four, according to Staples spokesman Michael Roth.

Laker, Clipper and King schedules are done year by year, he said, and dates for a 2005 Final Four would simply be reserved.

USC will be a late bidder for 2005. Officially, the deadline is Friday but extensions are routine in the bid process, according to Sue Donohoe, the NCAA’s director of Division I women’s basketball.

Bids for 2005, ’06 and ’07 will be examined at this season’s Final Four in St. Louis, according to Maryalyce Jeremiah, associate athletic director at Cal State Fullerton and chairwoman of the NCAA women’s selection committee.

“Committee members will then visit sites, bidders will make presentations in June and the winning bids will be announced in July,” she added.

“One of those three would be a western Final Four, since there have been only two since 1992.”

The 1999 Final Four was at San Jose.

After this year’s St. Louis tournament, the event moves to its first domed stadium, San Antonio’s Alamodome, in 2002. Atlanta and New Orleans are the sites for 2003 and 2004. The ’03 Atlanta Final Four will be the second there in 10 years, which bodes well for a return to Los Angeles in ’05.

An NCAA source said Los Angeles could face competition from Detroit, Boston and Portland.

Long lead time is essential for a women’s Final Four, according to Cathy Andruzzi, executive director for last year’s Philadelphia Final Four organizing committee.

“You need [time] to form an organizing committee, line up corporate sponsorships and hire a staff,” she said.

“Last year’s Final Four brought $25 million into Philadelphia. It’s a wonderful event, but there’s a lot of hard work putting it together too.”

STILES’ BIG GAME

Speaking of the St. Louis Final Four, Missourians are holding their breath, hoping they’ll have their very own 5-foot-8 superstar, Jackie Stiles, there.

The senior markswoman from Southwest Missouri State probably won’t win the player-of-the-year award because she doesn’t play for Connecticut, Tennessee or Notre Dame.

But anyone watching her televised performance Saturday might have agreed it was one of the greatest in the women’s college game since Texas Tech’s Sheryl Swoopes scorched Ohio State for 47 points in the 1993 national championship game.

In a 90-81 victory over Northern Iowa, Stiles had 49 points, two days after having scored 33 against Bradley. She was 17 for 23 from the field, five for six from the three-point arc. She made 10 of 12 free throws.

She has extraordinary lift to her jump shot, makes them from crazy angles, and possesses track speed. In high school at Claflin, Kan., population 678, she shot at least 1,000 times a day for four years.

And yes, she plays defense.

She has near-cult status in Missouri and is the main reason why Southwest Missouri ranks fifth in NCAA women’s attendance at 8,102 a game.

And wherever she plays, you can count on a WNBA scout being present.

“She’ll be one of the first five picks,” says Lin Dunn of Seattle, referring to the WNBA draft in April.

Stiles is not only leading the nation in scoring at 31.5 points a game but is also on track to become the NCAA’s career scoring leader. With 2,835 points, only eight players rank ahead of her.

She is 183 points behind fourth-place Cheryl Miller and 287 behind the leader, Patricia Hoskins, of Mississippi Valley.