April 2, 2002

FORT WORTH, Texas - The TCU Lady Frogs accomplished another one of their season's goals by finishing the 2001-02 campaign rated in the nation's top 25. TCU held onto the 25th position in the year-end USA Today/ESPN Coaches' Poll to close the season nationally-ranked for the first time in school history.

"One of the goals that we set before the season was to finish the year ranked in the top 25," head coach Jeff Mittie said. "We're happy that we have achieved that goal and hopefully it will give us some momentum heading into next year."

TCU finished the campaign with a 24-7 record, which was the second-highest win total in school history and the best winning percentage in the program's annals (.774). The Lady Frogs also advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year, claimed their second consecutive conference championship and have now posted back-to-back 20-win seasons.

After winning the Conference USA regular season title with a 12-2 record in their first season in the league, the Lady Frogs defeated Big Ten Tournament champion Indiana 55-45 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to halt the Hoosiers six-game winning streak.

Eighth-seeded TCU's season came to an end when top-seeded Duke defeated the Frogs by a 76-66 count on the Blue Devils' home court. Duke won its three other games in the tournament by an average of 24 points per game en route to a Final Four appearance.

On the year, TCU faced four teams (No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 4 Duke, No. 17 BYU and No. 23 Cincinnati) that ended the year in the top 25 and five teams who received votes (Arkansas, Tulane, Indiana, Oregon and Houston).