2012 Team USA Has More Female Olympians Than Men

It's fitting that in this 40th anniversary year for the groundbreaking Title IX law , for the first time ever the United States will send an Olympic team to the Games with more female competitors on it than their male counterparts.  We transfolks were hoping we'd get a man on it, but he fell just short of making his Olympic dream happen.

But this post is all about the sporting ladies. Out of the 530 people that will march into London's Olympic Stadium for Friday's opening ceremonies in their Made in China Ralph Lauren gear, 269 will be women and 261 will be men.

To highlight what US Olympic CEO Scott Blackmun called a 'true testament to the impact of Title IX', the oldest and youngest US Olympians are also women.  54-year-old equestrian rider Karen O'Connor will be the oldest US Olympian while the youngest is 15-year-old swimmer Katie Ledecky. 

The USA sporting girl power will be evident as American women are medal threats in both team and individual competitions from our world number one ranked basketball and soccer squads to gymnastics, volleyball, athletics.and other sports on the Olympic program.

And yeah, just thought I'd remind you peeps my favorite tennis playing siblings Serena and Venus Williams will be back on British soil playing in the Olympic tennis singles and doubles competitions that will be contested at 'Williams'-don starting July 28-August 5   The Williams Sisters are the defending 2008 Olympic doubles gold medalists and 2012 Wimbledon doubles champs
..
The FIBA number one world champion ranked USA women's b-ballers are seeking their fifth consecutive gold medal and start Group A play on July 28 against Croatia.

The USA women's soccer squad is seeking its third consecutive Olympic gold after their heartbreaking penalty kick shootout loss to Japan in the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup final in Germany with play starting on July 25 versus France.

We even have US women competing in the first ever women Olympic boxing competition.   One I will have my eye on during the upcoming games is my Houston area homegirl Marlen Esparza from Pasadena, who is a medal favorite and Cover Girl makeup spokesmodel in the inaugural women's boxing flyweight competition.

Baylor Lady Bears Visit The White House

Y'all know how much I love my Houston hoopster homegirl Brittney Griner and her Baylor Lady Bear teammates who completed an unbeaten 40-0 run to a NCAA women's basketball title and made me look like a hoops genius in terms of picking my NCAA women's March Madness bracket..

They got to visit the White House and President Obama yesterday and present the POTUS with a Baylor jersey and autographed basketball. 



“I could not be prouder of this team,” President Obama said during this event. ”As the father of two daughters who are tall and beautiful just like them, it is great to have role models who can show that women can be strong and athletic and competitive, but also play as a team.”

And this Lady Bear team had a dominating and record setting season on the way to beating the Skylar Diggins led Notre Dame Fighting Irish for the championship.   They also kept the NCAA women's championship trophy in the Lone Star State for the second consecutive season.

Can they repeat?   We'll see starting in November.

2012 Willams Watch-Williams Power!

My fave tennis playing siblings continue their so far wildly successful tennis business trip to the All England Club by knocking off the number one doubles seeds Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 in their doubles semifinal match..

Huber and Raymond flipped the script on my girls and took the first set in 33 minutes as Venus and Serena struggled with calibrating their serves.  But once they got it done, Little and Big Sis won seven straight games to take the second set and built a 3-0 lead in the third set before cruising to victory and their ninth Wimbledon Ladies doubles final.

They will play against the sixth seeded Czech duo of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka  in the Ladies doubles finals and attempt to win their sixth 'Williams'-don doubles crown.

2012 Williams Watch-Doubles Double Duty

The 4th of July was an off day for the Ladies Singles semifinalists, but not for the hardest working woman at 'Williams'-don  

In order to get ready for the upcoming Olympics tennis tournament that will also be played at the All England Club in a few short weeks, my favorite tennis playing siblings were entered in the doubles tournament for the first time since they were upset in the Wimbledon doubles quarterfinals while seeking a doubles title threepeat. in 2010.

Since then both have struggles with injuries and health issues that knocked them off their lofty status of being the world's number one ranked doubles team. 

The unseeded sisters started their quest for their 13th doubles Grand Slam title by knocking off the tandem of Vesna Dolonc of Serbia and Olga Savchuk of Ukraine in straight sets 6-0, 6-3.   That got them to their second round matchup with the fourth seeded Russian duo of Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova in which they won in three sets 6-3, 3-6, 9-7.

Their third round matchup was yesterday with Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the USA and Sania Mirza of India and beat them in straights set 6-4, 6-3

They are now in the Ladies doubles quarterfinals, on track for their first 'Williams'-don doubles title since 2009 and will face the tenth seeded American duo of Raquel Kops-Jones and  Abigail Spears.

Winner will face the number one seeded doubles team of Americans Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond in the semis..

2012 Williams Watch-Serena To 'Williams'-don Quarterfinals

If she's going to win her first Grand Slam title in two years, this may be her big opportunity to get it despite her father's concerns she's expending too much energy in the last two rounds. . 

The draw is setting up perfectly for Serena Williams as many of the big names like Maria Sharapova, Kim Clijsters, Li Na and Sam Stosur have already fallen victim to the upset bug  

Sixth seeded Serena survived an upset bid by China's Jie Zheng thanks to unleashing a Wimbledon record 23 aces onslaught to advance in a 2 hour and 28 minute three set marathon match and entered the fourth round of the 2012 Wimbledon Ladies Singles tournament against Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova

It took her three sets on Court 2, but she survived 6-1, 2-6, 7-5 to advance to the quarterfinals  .   

Once again Little Sis got off to a blazing start as she took only 26 minutes to complete the first set.   But in Shvedova she was facing a tall player that can hit just as hard as she could and she sent that message in the second set that took 34 minutes to play and even the match.   

Serena fought back in the closely contested deciding set that took 54 minutes to play and earned Little Sis a quarterfinal Centre Court matchup with defending Wimbledon champion and fourth seeded Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic.

Should be fun to watch at 9 AM CDT.  

Gabby Douglas Makes US Olympic Gymnastics Team

While I was flipping through the cable channels last night discovered there were two African-American gymnasts competing for spots on the US Olympic Gymnastics team.  One of them was 16 year old Gabrielle Douglas of Virginia Beach, VA  and the other was Elizabeth Price of Coopersburg, PA.  

I ended up watching the rest of the trials from the point I stumbled upon it because Gabrielle was leading the Olympic trails competition with two rotations to go over Jordyn Wieber, the current world champion.  

Douglas has been compared in gymnastics circles to Olympian Dominique Dawes, who was the first African American to not only make a US Olympics gymnastic team but won an individual gymnastics gold medal in floor exercise and a team gold as part of the 'Magnificent Seven' at the 1996 Atlanta Games. 

Douglas won gold at last year's Pan Am Games and hopes to make history by repeat the feat in London.   She eventually won one of the two automatic spots on the team by holding on to her lead over Wieber.   Elizabeth Price made the team as a replacement athlete as well.

It also gives me a heads up on another event and athlete I'll be keeping my eyes on when the London Games get started on July 27. 

Canadian Women B-Ballers Headed To London!

It's next stop London for the Canadian women's basketball team.

Two days after being upset by Croatia in the quarterfinals, they had to do it the hard way and on Canada Day no less, but for the first time since 2000 the Canadian women's basketball team will be taking part in the women's Olympic basketball tournament.

They knocked off Argentina 58-41 yesterday to get to today's final.  Courtney Pilypaitis scored 21 points and handed out six assists in the 71-63 win over Japan to clinch the final berth available in the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Ankara, Turkey.

The Canadians shot 48% for the game and lit it up from three point range, knocking down 9 of 19 attempts from behind the arc.

They get to savor their win for a few days and contemplate what life will be like in the Olympic Village before preparing for tough Group B Olympic competition that will include games with 2008 silver medalists Australia, Brazil, 2008 bronze medalists Russia,  2010 FIBA Women's World Championship runner-up Czech Republic and host nation Great Britain.   

2012 Williams Watch-Serena Survives Upset Bid

There were probably more than a few people around the world who presumed that Serena Williams would breeze by her third round opponent Jie Zheng of China when they stepped onto Centre Court to play their match. 

But Zheng had other ideas about that.  Zheng only made 17 unforced errors in the entire match and got an early Christmas present in the first set tie breaker when every point she scored in it was courtesy of Serena's errors. 

Two hours and 28 minutes later it took Little Sis hitting a Wimbledon record 23 aces, not dropping a service game in the entire match and every ounce of determination, experience and skill she could muster to outlast Zheng in a 6-7 (5-7) 6-2, 9-7 marathon match to get herself to the fourth round of the ladies single tournament at Wimbledon.

Serena can exhale for a moment and prepare herself for her fourth round opponent, Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan

Canada Women B-Ballers Still Alive For Olympic Berth

It's probably not the way they envisioned spending Canada Day, but they will be glad to take the court tomorrow with a final chance to dribble their way into the London Olympic women's basketball tournament. 

After a tough quarterfinal 59-56 loss to Croatia that dropped them into the win or go home knockout semifinal games today, Canada defeated Argentina 58-41 today to reach the final game at the FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament being contested in Ankara, Turkey.

Their opponent will be Japan, who knocked off their fellow FIBA Asian Zone rival Korea 79-51 to advance to tomorrow's pressure packed game for the final Olympic women's basketball berth.

Good luck ladies and don't sleep on Japan.   If you do your next chance to play basketball on the Olympic stage won't occur until 2016 in Rio.

2012 FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tourney In Quarterfinals

The 2012 FIBA Women's World Olympic Qualifying Tournament tipped off in Ankara, Turkey June 25 with our FIBA number 11 ranked Canadian neighbors being amongst the femme roundball teams trying to dribble their way into the London Olympic basketball tournament that starts a few weeks from now

Out of the 12 nations that started their quest for the five remaining spots to go to London only eight remain after they survived group play.  The host nation Turkey won Group A and will play Group B runner up and FIBA number 12 ranked Argentina. Group B winner and FIBA number 4 ranked Czech Republic will play Group A runner up and FIBA number 15 ranked Japan.  

Canada was in Group D with FIBA number 8 ranked France and Mali and got their tournament off to a rousing start June 25 by crushing Mali 89-23.  

The next day against France they brought their bricklayers union cards and got off to a slow start that resulted in a 57-46 loss and a 1-1 record in Group D play.  

Despite the loss they were still in great shape to qualify for the quarterfinals because of the blowout win over FIBA number 19 ranked Mali.   The only way they would be knocked out of the tournament is if Mali upset France and beat them by a 65 point margin in doing so. 

Umm no. France routed Mali 88-37 on June 27 to win the group with Canada finishing as the runner up.  France will play Group C runner up and FIBA number 9 ranked Korea for one of the Olympic spots.

The Canadians will play Croatia, the group C winner that has jumped 23 spots in the FIBA rankings to number 31 with a spot in the Olympics going to the winner and the loser moving on to play June 30 the loser of the Turkey-Argentina game.   The losers in the Czech Republic-Japan and France-Korea games would also battle it out on June 30 in the semis.

The winners of the June 30 semifinals would play July 1 for the final Olympic berth.  

I would think the Canadian women's b-ballers would rather handle their business today and be celebrating on Canada Day a trip to London rather than playing a nerve racking two additional must win games tomorrow and on Canada Day to get the final Olympic berth.

2012 Williams Watch-'Willliams'-don First Round Mixed Results

'The Championships' is what they call this tennis Grand Slam tournament on the other side of The Pond, and I call it 'Williams-don' for the way that my fave tennis playing siblings have dominated it.

Wimbledon started Monday with five time Wimbledon champion Big Sis playing a first round match against 79th ranked Russian Elena Vesnina.   Venus hadn't lost a match in the first round in any Grand Slam tournament in six and a half years or at the All-England Club since her debut season in 1997, but she fell to Vesnina 1-6, 2-6 as the 32 year old continues her recovery from Sjogren's Syndrome.

"I am a great player. Unfortunately, I had to deal with circumstances that people don't normally have to deal with in this sport. But I can't be discouraged by that. .. There's no way I'm just going to sit down and give up just because I have a hard time the first five or six freakin' tournaments back."

Venus did  make the Olympic team and plans to be back for the London Games tournament that will be played at the All England Club.  
Meanwhile sixth seeded Little Sis' first round got off to a better start after her shocking first round upset loss at the French Open last month. 

Serena kicked off her quest for her 4th 'Williams'don title and her first major title in two years by dispatching the Czech Republic's Barbora Zahlavova Strycova  6-2, 6-4 in a match that took her only 1 hour and 20 minutes to play with the first set taking only 29 minutes. 

Serena faces Hungary's Melinda Czink in the second round..

Title IX 40th Anniversary

"While the impact of this amendment would be far-reaching, it is not a panacea. It is, however, an important first step in the effort to provide for the women of America something that is rightfully theirs—an equal chance to attend the schools of their choice, to develop the skills they want, and to apply those skills with the knowledge that they will have a fair chance to secure the jobs of their choice with equal pay for equal work."

Sen. Birch Bayh (D-IN), February 28, 1972 Senate floor remarks during the introduction of Title IX


Today is the 40th anniversary of a groundbreaking piece of legislation that opened doors for American women in education and most visibly in sports.  It is the Patsy T. Mink Equality in Education Act, better known as Title XI and it passed Congress and became law 40 years ago today..

No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity   

In the second decade of the 21st century we take it for granted women getting advanced degrees, but in 1972 women only received 9% of all medical degrees earned nationwide, 7% of all law degrees and 25% of all doctoral ones. Title IX was designed to change that.

And it did. By 1994 those numbers exponentially increased to the point that American women received 38% of medical degrees, 43% of law degrees and 44% of all doctoral degrees earned at US collges and universities.
 
But it also had a profound effect on womens sports as we know by the WNBA now being in its 16th year of operation, the women's NCAA tournament getting the love that the guys do (at least from President Obama and ESPN), some of the pre-Olympic sporting spotlight being focused on female athletes and young girls growing up to compete in whatever sport they desire just as their male counterparts do.

Before Title IX, fewer than 300,000 high school girls played sports and there were less than 32,000 female athletes at the collegiate level. By 1974, just two years after the passage of Title IX, the number of high-schoolers participating in sports had skyrocketed to 1.3 million.

By the time I entered high school in 1977, HISD high school sports programs for girls such as basketball, track and volleyball were not only established down to the junior high school level, but starting to get some of the media attention the guys got.

Now there are more than 3 million high school girls who play sports and more that 191,000 females played NCAA sports in 2010-11. And unlike their mothers or grandmothers who often were limited to basketball, track and softball if they did get a chance to play, women now are participating in everything from squash to tennis, skiing, rugby to wrestling.  

Young boys post Title IX have grown up watching their mothers, sisters, female cousins, aunts and in some cases grandmothers competing in or coaching sporting events.  They don't have that distinction in their minds like my parents generation and some in mine did of male and female athletes.   

And yes, even the president's daughters are competing in sports with the proud POTUS and FLOTUS watching them do so.

“Title IX was the second-most important piece of civil rights legislation passed in this country,” said Debbie Yow, athletics director at N.C. State. “Had it not passed, the options and opportunities for women in this country and the world would be vastly different.”


Title IX changed life for American women not only in collegiate and professional sports, but there was a dramatic rise in the numbers of women who received college degrees post Title IX.  

Title IX was also the building block that set the stage for American women to enter corporate boardrooms, the media, politics, science, engineering and technology careers, be college professors,  become entrepreneurs, and even blast off into space  

Happy anniversary to Title IX, a groundbreaking piece of legislation that changed the lives of American women in my lifetime and made our country a better place for 51% per cent of the population.

Who Is Woman Enough to Participate in the Olympics?

Guest post from Renee of Womanist Musings

We have all become accustomed to the drug testing athletes must undergo to ensure that their performance has not been enhanced. Female athletes however are subjected to a new form of gender based policing based in the idea that someone have a natural biological advantage because of things like hormonal imbalances. 

There are some who believe that this amounts to an unfair advantage ever as it encourages gender policing that is harmful emotionally to girls and women.

Caster Semenya, the South African runner who was so fast and muscular that many suspected she was a man, exploded onto the front pages three years ago. She was considered an outlier, a one-time anomaly.

But similar cases are emerging all over the world, and Semenya, who was banned from competition for 11 months while authorities investigated her sex, is back, vying for gold.

Semenya and other women like her face a complex question: Does a female athlete whose body naturally produces unusually high levels of male hormones, allowing them to put on more muscle mass and recover faster, have an “unfair” advantage?

In a move critics call “policing femininity,” recent rule changes by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the governing body of track and field, state that for a woman to compete, her testosterone must not exceed the male threshold.

If it does, she must have surgery or receive hormone therapy prescribed by an expert IAAF medical panel and submit to regular monitoring. So far, at least a handful of athletes — the figure is confidential — have been prescribed treatment, but their numbers could increase. Last month, the International Olympic Committee began the approval process to adopt similar rules for the Games. [source]

Essentially, these tests and probes are meant to define what constitutes woman.  Even if a woman has always identified as female and lived her life as a woman,  simply a complaint to the IAAF is enough to force her to endure a battery of tests and treatment that she may not want or need, to be deemed suitably female enough to be able to compete.  This is beyond intrusive and amounts to cissexist gender policing.


The moment we begin to define gender strictly through biology, we limit the definition of what it is to be 'woman'.  It has also not escaped my notice that this is something that is only happening to female athletes.  No one is looking at men for supposed feminine characteristics largely because anything considered female is not socially understood to benefit men.  We know for instance that women have a lower center of gravity and this could come in handy in sports like gymnastics or even diving, but no one is on a mission to ensure that men are suitably masculine enough to perform.

This policy comes down to policing gender and more importantly, policing womanhood. This standard that has been created will effect all women.  We already live in an extremely cissexist world and trans women are subjected to all manner of abuse daily.  Subjecting female athletes to this test suggests that there is only one true standard for womanhood and failing to meet that marks one as "other."  It encourages people to question someone's gender even when they are clearly identified as female and will give rise to more cissexism.

Woman is a broad category and any attempt to narrow it is an assault on all women.  No one should have to be subjected to invasive testing and medication that they don't need for their bodies to function naturally to run in a race, dive or participate in any sport.  This testing is divisive and any athlete who agrees with this testing to me is only worried about taking home a medal at any cost.

2012 Olympic Women's and Men's Basketball Tournament Draw Held

We're getting closer to the start of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London on July 27 and the USA women's and men's basketball squads already know who will be in their respective groups when the basketball competition starts

For the four time defending gold medalist USA women, who are seeking their fifth consecutive gold medal in these games they will be in Group A that consists of Angola, China  and three of the qualifiers from the FIBA women's tournament that will be conducted in Turkey June 25-July 1.   


Group B on the women's side is shaping up to be the 'Group of Death' with Australia, Brazil, Great Britain, Russia, and the two remaining FIBA Olympic tournament qualifiers.

The Canadians are still alive for an Olympic women's berth.but will have to play in the Qlympic qualifying tournament in Ankara to get it.  They are in Group D with France and Mali and will either have to finish first or second in the group to advance to a matchup with whoever comes out of Group C between Croatia, Korea and Mozambique. 

For the FIBA world champion USA men, they will be seeking back to back Olympic gold in this tournament but will be missing Derrick Rose who just tore his ACL in the NBA playoffs and Dwight Howard who had back surgery and is out.    They are in Group A and will face Manu Ginobili and the Argentines, Tony Parker and France, Tunisia playing in their first ever Olympics, and two qualifiers from the FIBA Men's Olympic qualifying tournament to be conducted in Venezuela 

Group B on the men's side will consist of Australia, Brazil, China, the host Great Britain, Spain an the third FIBA qualifier 

The Men's Olympic qualifying tournament will be conducted in Caracas, Venezuela July 2-8.   In addition to the host Venezuelans will have perennial African champs Angola, who were shockingly upset in the Afrobasket tournament final by Tunisia.  

Nigeria, Russia, Lithuania, Greece, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Macedonia, Jordan, New Zealand and Korea round out the list of nations battling for the last three London Olympic basketball tournament spots

In both the women's and men's Olympic tourneys, top four teams in each group advance, then the four remaining teams play knockout games with the Group A winner facing off against the fourth place team in Group B, the Group A Runner up playing the third place team in Group B and the Group A third and fourth place teams squaring off in knockout games against the Group B winner and runner up. 

Winners keep playing until they get to the gold and bronze medal matches. 

The Olympic basketball competition will last until August 12, and I'm so looking forward to it.

Why Do People Have A Problem With Trailblazing Black Female Athletes?

I recently had to troll nuke a random fool who wandered over to my blog throwing 'That's A Man' shade at Brittney Griner.   But in the process of compiling that post, it got me pondering the question of why people are so threatened by trailblazing African-American female athletes?

In Brittney's case, I suspect that some of it is pure jealousy.  Some of the men throwing this shade can't hit a free throw much less dunk a basketball.   I also believe the 'unwoman' meme is also playing a role in this along with femininity policing.  

She is 6'8", but is also redefining how the women's game is played and even coached.   Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey noted during a recent interview that she had to ask several male coaches how to work with an athlete her size since people with Brittney's skill set and physical gifts are rare in the women's game.   

But yeah, I'm tired of the misgendering insults thrown at her. 

When Florence Griffith-Joyner was dominating the track world in the late 80's with her combination of blazing speed and off the charts glamour, not long after she began lowering the women's 100m and 200m world records in times that still haven't been touched, much less threatened by current female sprinters, critics were accusing her of either taking steroids or claiming she 'ran like a man' .

It didn't occur to them that she also busted her butt in practice
honing her skills in order to run those times that garnered her Olympic  medals.

Despite the fact she never failed a post race drug test, the accusations dogged her to the point that when she unexpectedly passed away in 1999 due to an epileptic seizure her family asked for an autopsy probably to shut up the critics.

That autopsy revealed no evidence of steroid usage.

My favorite tennis playing siblings, Venus and Serena Williams have their share of detractors as well but keep piling up the major tournament wins and Number one rankings despite the transphobic shade and racist epithets being hurled at them as well.

Oh yeah, Serena won the Family Circle title yesterday in Charleston, SC against another one of those Eastern European tennis Amazons in straight sets 6-0, 6-1.    .

And Williams haters, she not only looked good in dominating Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic, just a reminder the French Open is next month followed by Wimbledon and the Olympics.

And BTW, the Olympic tennis venue is Willaims-don AKA the All England Lawn Tennis And Croquet Club.

So I ask the question once again.   Why do people have a problem with trailblazing Black female athletes?

It doesn't matter if your white sheets are showing .  Despite your jealousy and Hateraid you're sipping from 55 gallon drums, they will confidently continue to excel and in many cases look good doing it.

The Lady Bears Are The Unbeaten 2012 NCAA Womens Champs

Told y'all the Lady Bears would win it all!  

Last night in Denver the NCAA women's basketball title stayed in Texas and moved up the Brazos River to Waco after the dominating 80-61 win of the Baylor Lady Bears over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to cap an undefeated and unprecedented 40-0 season    

It was Baylor's first title since 2005 and no NCAA team mens or women's have ever gone 40-0.  Baylor is the seventh team to go through their season unbeaten..

Was fun watching Brittney dominate in the paint after being held to only nine points in the first half.  Only wish she'd gotten a dunk in the title game.

Oh well, maybe she'll get one in Olympic women's basketball play later this summer in London, (hint, hint to Geno Auriemma and USA Basketball)

And bad news for you NCAA women's b-ball teams.   Brittney's coming back for her senior year.

Moni's 2012 NCAA Women's B-Ball Bracket

Since 2008 in honor of Women's History Month I do a women's NCAA Tournament bracket in addition to the one I do for 'the menz' and had so much fun doing so I repeated it in 2009 and 2010  


I've actually done a better job picking the women's NCAA tournament champion than I have for the men.   Then again, UConn was on The Streak' 

Last year I expected my Houston homegirl Brittney Griner and the Lady Bears to make it to the Final Four but had another set of Houston homegirls in the Ogwumike sisters and Stanford winning the title. 

The NCAA title did come back to Texas and along the Brazos River, but it's residing in College Station instead of Waco. 

After being beaten by the Lady Bears three times in the 2011 season, the Aggies upset Baylor in the Dallas Regional final to punch their ticket to their first ever Final Four.  Once they arrived in Indianapolis, the Aggies knocked off Stanford and 'home team' and Indiana home girl Skylar Diggins Notre Dame squad, who beat Tennessee and their nemesis UConn to get to the title game for the championship.. 

Baylor hasn't forgotten that loss and it's fueled them to an unbeaten record so far, the Big 12 regular season and tournament titles and the number one overall seed.   And yep, Brittney and company are determined to bring that trophy back to Waco for the first time since 2005.  But can the Lady Bears take that last step and be the team cutting down the nets at the Pepsi Center in Denver?  

I think so, but that's why you play the games..

Des Moines Regional

1st Round
Baylor, Ohio State, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, Nebraska, Delaware, DePaul, Tennessee 

2nd Round
Baylor, Georgetown, Nebraska, Tennessee

Elite Eight
Baylor, Tennessee


Des Moines Regional Champion
Baylor

Fresno Regional
1st Round
Stanford, West Virginia, South Carolina, Purdue, Oklahoma, St John's, Vanderbilt, Duke

2nd Round
Stanford, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Duke

Elite Eight
Stanford, Oklahoma

Fresno Region Champs
Stanford

Raleigh Regional
1st Round
Notre Dame, California, St Bonaventure, Georgia, Arkansas, Texas A&M, Louisville, Maryland

2nd Round
Notre Dame, Georgia, Arkansas, Maryland

Elite Eight
Notre Dame, Maryland

Raleigh Regional Champs
Notre Dame

Kingston Regional
1st Round
Connecticut, Kansas State, LSU, Penn State, Rutgers, Miami (FL), Iowa State, Kentucky

2nd Round
Connecticut, LSU, Miami (FL), Kentucky

Elite Eight
Connecticut, Kentucky

Kingston Regional Champs
Connecticut

Final Four Teams
Baylor, Stanford, Notre Dame, Connecticut 

Championship Game
Baylor, Notre Dame

2012 NCAA Champion
Baylor