BATON ROUGE — The LSU Lady Tigers run to the NCAA women’s Final Four moved the team up 16 spots to its highest final ranking ever in the last USA Today/ESPN coaches poll for the 2004 season announced on Wednesday.
The Lady Tigers, 19th in the final regular season poll at the end of the Southeastern Conference Tournament, parlayed four wins in the NCAA Tournament and a heart breaking loss to Tennessee in the national semifinals to a No. 3 ranking in the final poll behind national champion Connecticut, who moved from sixth to first, and runner-up Tennessee, who moved from third to second in the final vote.
A total of 40 members of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association made up the voting panel for the USA Today/ESPN poll.
The Tigers in the tournament beat Austin Peay, 83-66, and Maryland, 76-61, in the first two rounds played in Baton Rouge at the Maravich Center, before downing then-No. 4 Texas, 71-55, and then No. 15 Georgia, 62-60, in the West Regional at Seattle to earn the trip to the women’s NCAA Final Four at the New Orleans Arena.
After Connecticut, Tennessee and LSU, Minnesota (who lost to Connecticut in the other national semifinal) jumped from 22nd to fourth, followed by former No. 1 Duke, Penn State, Stanford, Georgia (up from 15), Purdue and Texas. In the second 10, Louisiana Tech dropped from fifth to 12, with Vanderbilt at 13 and Auburn at No. 23.
LSU finished its season with a record of 27-8 and 895 points in the poll, 12 more than fourth place Minnesota, and 64 points shy of second place Tennessee in the voting.