# 2000–01 Southwest Missouri State Lady Bears basketball team

The 2000–01 Southwest Missouri State Lady Bears basketball team represented Southwest Missouri State University during the 2000–01 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Lady Bears, led by 14th-year head coach Cheryl Burnett, played their home games at Hammons Student Center and were members of the Missouri Valley Conference.
They finished the season 29–6 and 16–2 in conference play to tie for the regular season MVC title. As the number two seed in the conference tournament, they defeated Indiana State, Northern Iowa, and Drake to take home the MVC tournament championship. They received an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament and were assigned the No. 5 seed in the West region. They defeated No. 12 seed Toledo, No. 4 seed Rutgers, No. 1 seed Duke, and No. 6 seed Washington to reach the second Final Four in program history. The Lady Bears were defeated by Purdue in the National semifinals.
Southwest Missouri State spent the entire season ranked in both major polls. The team was ranked in the top 15 for nine weeks, and had a final ranking in the Coaches poll of No. 4.

## Schedule

Source:
| Date time, TV | Rank$^#$ | Opponent$^#$ | Result | Record | Site (attendance) city, state |
| Regular season ||||||
| Dec 1, 2000* | No. 18 | at No. 19 Oklahoma | L 82–89 | 4–2 | Lloyd Noble Center Norman, Oklahoma |
| Dec 7, 2000* | No. 18 | Iowa | W 101–87 | 6–2 | Hammons Student Center Springfield, Missouri |
| Dec 16, 2000* | No. 21 | No. 17 Oklahoma | W 69–61 | 7–2 | Hammons Student Center Springfield, Missouri |
| Dec 30, 2000 | No. 16 | at Creighton | W 84–59 | 8–2 (1–0) | Omaha Civic Auditorium Omaha, Nebraska |
| Jan 1, 2001 | No. 16 | at Drake | L 63–66 | 8–3 (1–1) | Veterans Memorial Auditorium Des Moines, Iowa |
| Jan 29, 2001* | No. 20 | at Western Kentucky | L 69–74 | 15–4 | E. A. Diddle Arena Bowling Green, Kentucky |
| Feb 11, 2001 | No. 18 | Evansville | W 91–65 | 18–4 (12–1) | Hammons Student Center Springfield, Missouri |
| Feb 16, 2001 | No. 18 | Bradley | W 81–55 | 19–4 (13–1) | Hammons Student Center Springfield, Missouri |
| Feb 18, 2001 | No. 18 | at Northern Iowa | L 80–99 | 19–5 (13–2) | UNI-Dome Cedar Falls, Iowa |
| Feb 25, 2001 | No. 21 | at Wichita State | W 89–85 $^{OT}$ | 20–5 (14–2) | Levitt Arena Wichita, Kansas |
| Mar 1, 2001 | No. 18 | Creighton | W 94–59 | 21–5 (15–2) | Hammons Student Center Springfield, Missouri |
| Mar 3, 2001 | No. 18 | Drake | W 87–63 | 22–5 (16–2) | Hammons Student Center Springfield, Missouri |
| MVC tournament ||||||
| Mar 8, 2001* | (2) No. 16 | (7) Indiana State Quarterfinals | W 92–63 | 23–5 | Hammons Student Center Springfield, Missouri |
| Mar 9, 2001* | (2) No. 16 | (3) Northern Iowa Semifinals | W 86–54 | 24–5 | Hammons Student Center Springfield, Missouri |
| Mar 10, 2001* | (2) No. 16 | (1) Drake Championship game | W 84–69 | 25–5 | Hammons Student Center Springfield, Missouri |
| NCAA tournament ||||||
| Mar 17, 2001* | (5 W) No. 15 | vs. (12 W) Toledo First round | W 89–71 | 26–5 | Louis Brown Athletic Center Piscataway, NJ |
| Mar 19, 2001* | (5 W) No. 15 | at (4 W) No. 11 Rutgers Second round | W 60–53 | 27–5 | Louis Brown Athletic Center Piscataway, NJ |
| Mar 24, 2001* | (5 W) No. 15 | vs. (1 W) No. 5 Duke Regional Semifinal – Sweet Sixteen | W 81–71 | 28–5 | Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena Spokane, WA |
| Mar 26, 2001* | (5 W) No. 15 | vs. (6 W) Washington Regional Final – Elite Eight | W 104–87 | 29–5 | Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena Spokane, WA |
| Mar 30, 2001* | (5 W) No. 15 | vs. (3 ME) No. 9 Purdue National Semifinal – Final Four | L 64–81 | 29–6 | Savvis Center St. Louis, Missouri |
| *Non-conference game. $^#$Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. MW=Midwest. All times are in Central Time. ||||||

## Rankings

Ranking movements Legend: ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking :
| | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week |
| Poll | Pre | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | Final |
| AP | 21 | 21 | 17 | 13 | 18 | 21 | 18 | 16 | 15 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 13 | 15 | 15 | 20 | 18 | 16 | 15 |
| Coaches | 21 | 21 | 16 | 13 | 17 | 18 | 15 | 15 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 13 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 4 |

## Awards and honors

* Jackie Stiles – Wade Trophy, Honda Sports Award, First-team All-American, MVC Player of the Year