March 4, 2008

• Watch Memphis vs. Tulsa Live (Details)
• Gametracker
• Game Notes
• C-USA Championship Central

Television/Website Viewing Information Online Coverage

Conference USA will offer live online streaming video of 10 C-USA Women's Basketball Championship games from UCF Arena in Orlando, Fla. The championship game will not be available online, but will be televised nationally on ESPN2.

Each game will be available on a pay-per-view basis for a one-time payment of $9.95. To purchase pay-per-view games, click here.

All 10 games are available by purchasing a subscription to CSTV XXL. For more information on CSTV XXL and how to order, go to www.cstv.com/xxl.

If you are a current Annual subscriber to CSTV XXL, you will be able to access ALL 10 games as part of your subscription, PLUS audio/video coverage from other conference tournaments.

If you are a current Annual subscriber to a C-USA school's All-Access package, you will receive all of that team's C-USA Championship games for FREE as part of your Annual package. Current subscribers can just log in with your normal account and begin watching the game. Please note that Monthly subscribers will have to purchase the pay-per-view.

Annual subscriptions to a C-USA school's All-Access are for a 12-month period. Fans who wish to purchase an Annual subscription to a C-USA school's All-Access can do so by visiting the official athletics website and clicking on the All-Access graphic link.

Free Gametracker live stat tracking will also be available for every game. Highlights for each game will also be featured on conferenceusa.com. For full tournament coverage, go to C-USA Championship Central and don't miss a minute of the action!

The University of Memphis women's basketball (10-19, 7-9 C-USA) new season in the conference tournament begins on Thursday against Tulsa (10-19, 6-10 C-USA) in the first game of the Conference USA Championship tournament at UCF at noon (ET).

Both teams sport identical 10-19 records. Memphis went 5-4 to close its regular season, while Tulsa was 1-8 over its final nine games, including a double overtime loss to UAB.

But Tulsa will be a dangerous opponent for the Lady Tigers in the opening round. Sophomore Larissa Williams averages close to a double-double with 14.1 points and 9.7 rebounds per game, and is part of a formidable Golden Hurricane front court that includes 6-3 center Chanel Johnson, who adds 10.5 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. Between Williams and Johnson, Tulsa has 134 blocked shots on the season. Forward Teka Brooks adds her 23 blocked shots off the bench, to put up a big defensive front for slashing players.

Tulsa also may look past the Lady Tigers to see No. 2 seed SMU awaiting the winner of the first round game. Tulsa swept the regular season series meeting with the Mustangs, and will likely use that as motivation get fired up for the Lady Tigers.

Memphis got redshirt junior Jessica Hall back in the line-up last weekend after Hall suffered a shoulder injury in the last minute of the first half at Marshall. That injury cost her the entire ECU game, but didn't stop her from playing in two physical contests last weekend. Hall hit five of six free-throws in the final 2:32 of the game against Southern Miss to help the Lady Tigers come back from an seven-point deficit to win 64-60 Thursday night. For the weekend, she averaged 16.5 points and 2.5 rebounds per game.

Sophomore point guard Latoya Bullard bounced back from a difficult first half against UCF to post her first career double-double, finishing with 13 points and 12 assists in 39 minutes against the Knights.

Hall remains Memphis' leading scorer with 12.9 ppg, while Paris Leonard averages 11.9 ppg. Leonard hit three triples against USM to become the sixth Lady Tiger in school history to connect on 100 or more three-point field goals. Former teammate Devin Necaise passed the same mark last season. Leonard is now just 20 points away from the 900-point mark for her career at Memphis.

The meeting between Memphis and Tulsa will be the first-ever between the two programs as part of the C-USA tournament. The overall series between the two teams is 2-2 coming in to Thursday afternoon's game.

Memphis vs. Tulsa
This is the fifth meeting between Memphis and Tulsa and the overall series is knotted at 2-2. This will be the first-ever meeting between the two teams in the Conference USA Tournament. They have never met at a neutral site before.

Best League Win Total in Four Years
Memphis' seven league victories is the Lady Tigers' best win-total since 2003-04's nine victories. The No. 7 seed for the Lady Tigers follows back-to-back years at the No. 12 seed in the league and is Memphis' highest-tournament seeding since 2003-04, when the Lady Tigers were the No. 6 seed.

C-USA Tournament History for the Lady Tigers
Memphis has appeared in every Conference USA tournament (including the previous format where not all participating schools qualified for the draw) since helping in the league's formation in 1995.

The Lady Tigers have not advanced past the first round since 2004-05. Current assistant coach Jennifer Sullivan was a player on that team which advanced to the quarterfinals before falling to nationally-ranked DePaul (No. 12) in the quarterfinals. Memphis has not appeared in the semifinal round since the 1997-98 season.

Some Pre-Season Pick!
The pre-season prognosticators were a little bit off when it came to assessing where the Lady Tigers would finish for the 2007-08 season. Memphis was picked to finish 12th in the league and finished in a tie for sixth. Memphis got the No. 7 seed because Marshall swept the regular season series with the Lady Tigers, earning the No. 6 seed.

Bullard Grabs First Career Double-Double
Point guard Latoya Bullard posted her first career double-double against UCF in the loss, handing out 12 assists and finishing with 13 points. She now has 119 assists through 18 games (6.6 apg).

Jennings Knocks Down 600th Career Point
Senior Aroha Jennings was not fortunate enough to get a win in her last Lady Tiger home game, but she did pass the 600-career point plateau in just her 60th career game. She needs just three more rebounds to pass the 300-rebound mark and will leave Memphis in the top 40 in career points despite not playing her until after her junior college career.

Leonard Knocks Down No. 100
With a three-point field goal with 11:36 remaining in the game, Paris Leonard not only tied up the game at 46-46, but had also knocked down her 100th career three-point field goal. With that triple, she is now just the sixth Lady Tiger in school history to pass the 100 career-three point mark.

Leonard Picks Up Second Career Double-Double
Paris Leonard scored 15 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for her second career double-double in the USM game. The 10 rebounds is her first double-digit rebounding night of the season and the first since she was a college freshman playing in her third-ever career game against Austin Peay. She tied a fieldhouse record with 10 offensive rebounds in that game, finishing with 13 boards and 26 points.

Winchell Ties Davis' Freshman Mark in Threes
Freshman Alex Winchell knocked down both threes she attempted on Thursday night to move in to a tie for seventh place on Memphis' freshman single-season records chart. Winchell is now tied with former teammate Alysse Davis' mark of 29 triples from last season with one regular season game and the conference tournament still to play. She would need three more triples to tie Kitty Allen's mark 32 from 1993-94 for fifth all-time. Winchell's 94 attempted triples currently ranks fourth all-time among the Memphis freshmen, two ahead of Davis' mark, heading in the conference tournament.

Bullard Rolling Toward 200th Career Point
Point guard Latoya Bullard is just six points shy of her 200th career point through 21 career games coming in to the league tournament. Bullard is shooting 40.1 percent from the floor and is also just three rebounds shy of her 100th rebound in 21 games.

Hall Moving in Single Season and Career Three-Point Categories
Jessica Hall hit three of six shots from three-point range Saturday afternoon, giving her 50 threes through the regular season. She becomes just the fifth player in school history to hit 50 or more triples in a single season, joining LaTonya Johnson and Devin Necaise, who each passed that mark twice in their respective careers, while Kitty Allen and Tamika Butler each passed that mark one time.

Hall now has 63 career triples, which ranks her 9th on the career scoring list. She needs eight more to tie Lauren Jackson's mark of 71 that she scored from 1998-2002.

Leonard Pushing 900
Junior guard Paris Leonard will likely be Memphis' next 1,000 career point scorer, and she heads in to the Conference USA tournament with 880 career points (20 shy of the 900 point mark).

Savage Ending Her Lady Tiger Career
Head Coach Blair Savage-Lansden will be ending her 12-year-coaching affiliation with the University of Memphis at the completion of the 2007-08 season. Savage submitted her letter of resignation on Monday, Mar. 3rd, and will coach the team through the remainder of the `07-'08 season. Savage came to Memphis in 1994-95 as the team's restricted earnings coach, and was named an assistant coach in 1996. She had planned on leaving Memphis before the 2002-03 season to join her husband in central Tennessee, but stayed on through the 2002-03 season at the team's request, commuting to central Tennessee to see her husband. She joined him in the Nashville area in 2003-04, also serving as an assistant coach on the women's staff at Belmont. She returned to Memphis as the program's third-ever head coach in 2004.

About our 2007-08 Opponents
Memphis will play 29 regular season games, including seven of the first eight at home. Here are how our past and future opponents are doing:

Tennessee Tech (8-22, 7-12 OVC overall): Found out before tip off they were mathematically eliminated from post-season play and lost to Murray State, 80-70; season complete.
Southeastern Louisiana (12-15 overall, 6-8 SLC): Defeated Northwestern State, 70-49; hosts McNeese State, Thursday.
Creighton (18-9 overall, 11-5 MVC): Won 87-74 on Senior Day over Indiana State; plays at Wichita State, Thursday.
Tennessee State (13-16 overall, 10-10 OVC): Secured the No. 5 seed in the OVC tournament with a 68-66 win at Eastern Kentucky; plays at Eastern Illinois, Tuesday, in the first round.
Louisiana Tech (14-13 overall, 8-6 WAC): Defeated Nevada, 70-64, plays at Hawai'i Thursday.
Alabama A&M (11-13 overall, 9-6 SWAC): Fell 89-58 at Prairie View A&M; plays at Texas Southern, Monday.
Mississippi State (16-13 overall, 4-10 SEC): Fell 64-49 to No. 6 LSU; will play Florida in the first round of the SEC tournament, Thursday.
Belmont (14-15 overall, 8-8 A-Sun): Secured No. 4 seed in Atlantic Sun tourney with a 68-59 win over Gardner Webb; plays Lipscomb, Thursday.
Arkansas (17-12 overall, 2-12 SEC): Fell to Auburn, 74-57; will face Auburn again on Thursday in the SEC first round.
Loyola-Chicago (6-21 overall, 4-11 Horizon): Fell on last minute free-throws, 47-45, at Detroit; hosts Youngstown State, Thursday night.Florida Gulf Coast (18-8 overall, 13-3 A-Sun): Defeated North Florida, 70-39; participate in the National Independent Tournament, beginning on Thursday.
Arkansas-Pine Bluff (9-18 overall, 7-9 SWAC): Fell 69-59 to Alabama A&M; plays at Jackson State, Monday.
Toledo (11-15 overall, 4-10 MAC): Snapped seven-game losing streak with a 81-76 win at Central Michigan; hosts Western Michigan, Wednesday.
UAB (14-15 overall, 10-6 C-USA): Fell 76-73 to Southern Miss; awaits the winner of the Marshall/Tulane game, Friday, at 2:30 p.m.
Marshall (15-15 overall, 7-9 C-USA): Won on the road at Houston, 78-74; plays No. 11 seed Tulane, Thursday, at 2:30 p.m.
East Carolina (13-16, 7-9 C-USA): Fell at Rice, 69-62; plays No. 9 seed Rice again on Thursday, at 8 p.m.
Tulane (16-13 overall, 6-10 C-USA): Defeated SMU, 71-68; faces No. 6 seed Marshall, at 2:30 p.m., Thursday.
UTEP (25-2 overall, 16-0 C-USA): Put first perfect C-USA season in the women's books with a 65-50 win over Tulsa; awaits the winner of the ECU/Rice game, at 8 p.m., Friday.
Houston (15-15 overall, 9-7 C-USA): Fell 78-74 to Marshall; awaits the winner of the Southern Miss/UCF game at 5:30 p.m., Friday.
Rice (13-17 overall, 6-10 C-USA): Defeated ECU 69-62 and will face the Pirates again on Thursday at 8 p.m. in the first round.
Southern Miss (17-12 overall, 8-8 C-USA): Won at UAB, 76-73; plays No. 12 seed UCF, Thursday at 5:30 p.m.
UCF (10-19 overall, 3-13 C-USA): Won at Memphis 81-69; hosts No. 5 seed USM, Thursday, at 5:30 p.m.
SMU (21-8 overall, 11-5): Lost at Tulane, 71-68; awaits the winner of the Memphis/Tulsa game, Friday, at noon.
Tulsa (10-19 overall, 6-10): Fell at No. 23 UTEP, 65-50; plays No. 7 seed Memphis, Thursday at noon.