History Lesson: Women's Basketball Championship

Yesterday we took a look at some men's basketball tournament history, relieving 30-plus year of March goodness. Today, it's time to jump over to the women's tournament which has plenty of history of its own. Four America East squads all time have won games in the NCAA Tournament and three times the conference has had two teams make the field. This obviously speaks to the depth and competitiveness the women bring to the table every single year.

Hartford leads the way with two NCAA wins all-time. The first came in 2006 as an 11 seed over No. 6 Temple and the next one came just two years later when the Hawks downed No. 7 Syracuse as a 10 seed. Just two years after that, Vermont also earned a win as a 10 seed, getting past No. 7 Wisconsin. For the conference to boast three upset wins like that in six years is pretty incredible. Maine started off this great tradition of success back in 1999. The Black Bears, also a 10 seed, beat No. 7 Stanford for the conference's first NCAA win.

Tournament Fun Facts...

Cindy Blodgett

• The No. 1 seed has reached 22 conference finals, winning in 16 of those trips.
• The No. 2 and 3 seeds are tied for the second most titles, both with four each.
• Hartford coach Jen Rizzotti is the all-time championship wins leader with 21 since 1999.
• Maine has seven America East Championship titles, the most all-time. Four of those came in consecutive years from 1995-1998.
• Maine also has the most wins all-time in tournament play, but it is tied with Vermont, as both programs have 34 victories. The Bearcats, however, lead the Catamounts in head-to-head tournament play 6-4.
• Binghamton won its first round matchup last year as a No. 6 seed over No. 3 Hartford. That was the first 6/3 upset in the America East Championship since 2002 when New Hampshire downed the Bearcats.
• Albany won its first championship a year ago, becoming the fourth different team since 2007 to claim a title.
• Cindy Blodgett of Maine set the single-game tournament scoring record with 52 points against Towson in the 1997 quarterfinals. Blodgett scored 128 points in three games that year, which is also an all-time record.
• Sharon Bay of Vermont hauled in 21 boards against Delaware in 1993 to set a tournament record.
• Maureen DiJulia of Hartford has the most assists all-time in a tournament game with 14.
• Maine and Drexel set the championship record with 110 combined points in 1997.

Linked Up

Visit the America East Facebook page to vote for the men's and women's basketball Fan's Choice Player of the Year!

Our four-part video series commemorating Black History Month comes to a close today as we bring you comments from all nine individuals.

Please keep the women's basketball team from Maine in your thoughts as they were involved in an accident last night while traveling to their game at Boston U.

Justin Edwards is up for Fan's Choice Player of the Year and Maine put together a pretty awesome highlight video from his season.

Jeff Borzello of CBS Sports runs down his Freshman of the Year list and Jordan Reed earns a mention in the notes section.