1st Ever Undefeated Women's Champ Texas 1986 That Beat Cheryl Miller in Her Last Game Ever

You can watch the first-ever undefeated women’s national champion, the 1986 Texas Longhorns, in this video, ending Cheryl Miller’s chance at a third national championship in decisive 97–81 fashion.

It was the last game Miller ever played. The knee injury that would ultimately keep her from ever playing professionally held her to 2-of-11 shooting in the championship game.

Clarissa Davis-Wrightsil came off the bench to score 24 points and grab 14 rebounds in just 24 minutes. She went on to become National Player of the Year during her college career and is ranked as our 40th-greatest college player ever, despite playing only one season professionally—ironically under coach Cheryl Miller, who we ranked as the 9th greatest woman's college basketball team of all time.

In this game, Texas was traveling to Purdue 2003 in the Value Add Basketball Game, trying to maintain its all-time ranking as the fourth-greatest team of all time. Here is the box score, as the Longhorns easily won at Purdue, 76–52, in the Value Add Basketball Game.

Texas was a 22-point favorite, and in our next game, all-time #5 Louisiana Tech will be a 21-point favorite against Penn State as each game pits slightly more evenly matched teams against each other.

The spreads we initially listed were all three points more lopsided before we decided to make all favorite teams play on the road, where the home team can change rolls of 36 to 66, or vice versa, to get away with a missed foul or have a foul called on the visiting team that was not a foul.

The 1986 Texas team was not included at first because we did not have enough stats until a couple of years later. Originally, we only had enough stats for Clarissa Davis-Wrightsil’s senior year, when she made our all-time top 40 players list, but that Texas team was actually not very good. That team was later replaced in the game by the undefeated 1986 national championship team.

Purdue 2003 is likewise a strong team, BUT we didn’t have enough stats for any of Purdue’s championship teams from previous decades—so this is likely a bit of a mismatch when we roll the first dice.

In this game, Davis came off the bench as a freshman to score a game-high 20 points.

Pos	Texas 1986	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Ht	Season stats
1-PG	Kamie Ethridge	6	0	3	0	0	2	4	0	2	5'5	5.2 Pts, 2.6 Reb, 6.1 Ast
2-SG	Beverly Williams	11	1	4	0	0	5	1	0	1	5'8	11.6 Pts, 4.1 Reb, 3.0 Ast,wnba
3-SF	Fran Harris	12	0	6	0	0	4	0	0	4	6'0	13.8 Pts, 3.6 Reb, 1.5 Ast
4-PF	Andrea Lloyd-Curry	9	0	3	3	5	7	0	0	4	6'2	9.2 Pts, 7.5 Reb, 2.6 Ast,wnba
5-C	Annette Smith	8	0	4	0	0	5	0	1	2	5'11	10.4 Pts, 4.1 Reb, 0.9 Ast
Pos	Reserve	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Ht	Season stats
1-PG	Audrey Smith	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	5'7	3.8 Pts, 1.2 Reb, 1.5 Ast
2-SG	Yulonda Wimbish	4	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	1	5'9	7.4 Pts, 1.7 Reb, 0.5 Ast
3-SF	Gay Hemphill	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	5'11	7.2 Pts, 3.2 Reb, 0.7 Ast
4-PF	Clarissa Davis-Wrightsil	20	2	7	0	0	5	0	0	2	6'3	13.5 Pts, 7.7 Reb, 0.5 Ast,wnba
5-C	Cara Priddy	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'2	4.9 Pts, 2.1 Reb, 0.2 Ast
		76	3	32	3	5	32	5	1	19
Pos	purdue 2003	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Ht	Season stats
1-PG	Erika Valek	11	1	3	2	2	2	3	1	1	5'6	14.0 Pts, 3.8 Reb, 4.9 Ast
2-SG	Beth Jones	2	0	1	0	0	2	3	0	1	5'9	8.7 Pts, 2.4 Reb, 2.5 Ast
3-SF	Lindsey Hicks	10	0	4	2	4	4	0	0	1	6'1	7.4 Pts, 4.4 Reb, 1.7 Ast
4-PF	Shereka Wright	14	0	5	4	6	4	1	0	3	5'10	18.9 Pts, 6.3 Reb, 2.7 Ast,wnba
5-C	Mary Jo Noon	5	0	2	1	2	8	0	1	1	6'5	11.0 Pts, 4.9 Reb, 0.6 Ast
Pos	Reserve	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Ht	Season stats
1-PG	Sharika Webb	2	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	1	5'9	2.8 Pts, 1.8 Reb, 1.4 Ast
2-SG	Carol Duncan	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'1	1.9 Pts, 2.1 Reb, 0.2 Ast
3-SF	Missy Taylor	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'3	1.7 Pts, 1.4 Reb, 0.3 Ast
4-PF	Sabrina Keys	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'3	1.3 Pts, 1.1 Reb, 0.1 Ast
5-C	Emily Heikes	2	0	1	0	0	3	0	0	2	6'0	6.0 Pts, 5.3 Reb, 0.4 Ast
		52	1	20	9	14	27	8	2	13

Auburn 2009 Gives All-Time Champs Tennessee 1998 a Scare Until Late Run

We tried a little twist to play off the 64 greatest all-time women's teams in the Value Add Basketball Game: the designated better seeds have to play on the road. We remembered UNC and Kentucky agreeing to play all road games in the NIT one year. That shift means our first game changed from the 34-point spread we posted to a 31-point spread due to the favorite needing to play on the road, but it was much closer than that.

In fact our all-time champions from Tennessee 1998 got quite a scare against Auburn 2009, a team that went 30-4 and defeated Tennessee 82-68 during that season.. An early home job call - which occurs when the home team changes a roll of 36 to 66 or vice versa - gave an early 2nd foul to Tamika Catchings, who we ranked as the greatest college women's basketball player of all time in this top 40.

Auburn hung right with the legendary 39-0 Tennessee team through the first half. The Tigers actually took a 26-25 lead before Tennessee recovered to lead just 30-28 at halftime.

Then the all-time champs finally took over.

For this game, we're trying something different with the play-by-play. Rather than just giving the final score and highlights, we're listing every dice roll except the 1-20 free-throw rolls, along with what happened on each possession. The running score is on the left, with Tennessee listed first and Auburn second.

That lets you see not only what happened, but exactly how the Value Add Basketball game produced it.

When the line starts with TN, that means Tennessee is rolling, and if AU, then Auburn is rolling.

The first number is the 8-sided die to see which player gets the ball. The second number is the two 6-sided dice roll of 11-66 to see if the defender steals, blocks a shot or fouls, or if the offensive player turns it over, or there is a team defensive breakdown for a layup or alternatively a stop. The third number is the 20-sided die, which is only used if nothing happens on the 11-66, to see if the player shoots or gets to the line.

Tennessee 1998 vs. Auburn 2009

Tennessee 1998: 39-0, the first of three straight national championship teams in our all-time tournament format.

Auburn 2009: 30-4, ranked No. 8 nationally after a season that included an 82-68 victory over Tennessee to start 20-0.

Players entering the game (in Value Add the game starts 20-20 with all players having scored 2 points and 7 minutes left in the first half and in most cases reserves finishing out their last minutes before the starters finish the majority of the game).

Tennessee: Laurie Milligan (2.0 PPG, 0.4 RPG, 1.3 APG); Brynae Laxton (1.2, 1.9, 0.2); Niya Butts (1.8, 1.1, 0.3); LaShonda Stephens (4.0, 3.4, 0.2); Teresa Geter (6.3, 4.8, 0.8).

Auburn: Whitney Boddie (11.2 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 7.9 APG); Morgan Jennings (2.4, 1.6, 1.1); Reneisha Hobbs (2.7, 1.7, 0.5); Parrisha Simmons (1.0, 2.7, 0.6); KeKe Carrier (4.7, 3.1, 0.4).

If you want to scroll down to see the traditional box score and final, it appears at the bottom of the blog.

Play-by-Play

By each player we show which team they are on and then their position (1 = pg, 2 = sg etc) and if that 1 to 5 number is listed twice it means they were the backup player at that position.

Score TN-AU| Team| 8-side| 6-sides| 20-side| Player| Result

—| AU| 5| 35| 16| DeWanna Bonner (AU-5)| Again, almost any center would have fouled

—| —| —| 4| 6| Sherell Hobbs (AU-3)| Rebound

—| —| 4| 33| 14| Trevesha Jackson (AU-4)| Missed shot

—| —| —| —| —| Tamika Catchings (TN-3)| Rebound

—| TN| 6| 42| 5| Tamika Catchings (TN-3)| Foul

—| AU| 2| 43| 9| Kellie Harper (TN-2)| Turnover

41-33| AU| —| —| —| Alli Smalley (AU-2)| Makes 1 of 2 free throws

43-33| TN| 5| 52| 20| Chamique Holdsclaw (TN-5)| 52 falls in her layup range

—| AU| 2| 43| 19| Alli Smalley (AU-2)| Missed shot

—| —| —| 4| 1| DeWanna Bonner (AU-5)| Rebound

43-35| AU| 4| 42| 7| Trevesha Jackson (AU-4)| Most players turn it over on 42, but Jackson has no turnovers on her card, so the 7 produces the shot

45-35| TN| 8| 52| 16| Chamique Holdsclaw (TN-5)| Layup range again

—| AU| 3| 31| 6| Tamika Catchings (TN-3)| Great steal

—| TN| 1| 24| 20| Kristen Clement (TN-1)| Missed shot

—| —| —| 6| 3| Chamique Holdsclaw (TN-5)| Rebound

—| AU| 8| 41| 12| DeWanna Bonner (AU-5)| Foul

—| TN| 7| 63| 17| Chamique Holdsclaw (TN-5)| Missed shot

—| —| —| —| —| Trevesha Jackson (AU-4)| Rebound

45-37| AU| 8| 14| 8| DeWanna Bonner (AU-5)| Basket

—| TN| 5| 42| 7| Chamique Holdsclaw (TN-5)| Foul

—| AU| 5| 16| 2| Chamique Holdsclaw (TN-5)| Unheard-of steal range of 1-6 for a center

48-37| TN| 6| 34| 3| Tamika Catchings (TN-3)| 3-pointer

—| AU| 3| 36| 15| Tamika Catchings (TN-3)| Third foul on Catchings — danger

48-38| AU| —| —| —| Sherell Hobbs (AU-3)| Makes only the second of two free throws

50-38| TN| 8| 23| 2| Chamique Holdsclaw (TN-5)| Basket

—| AU| 5| 22| 7| Chamique Holdsclaw (TN-5)| Block — would otherwise have been a bucket

—| —| —| 4| 7| Trevesha Jackson (AU-4)| Offensive rebound — Jackson's excellent 1-7 range

—| —| 4| 32| 6| Tamika Catchings (TN-3)| Great steal saves a bucket

—| —| —| 6| 6| Tamika Catchings (TN-3)| Rebound

53-38| TN| 6| 26| 2| Tamika Catchings (TN-3)| 3-pointer

—| AU| 4| 23| 12| Semeka Randall Lay (TN-4)| Blocked shot

—| —| —| —| —| Kellie Harper (TN-2)| Rebound

—| TN| 7| 55| 9| DeWanna Bonner (AU-5)| Turnover

55-38| TN| —| —| —| Chamique Holdsclaw (TN-5)| Makes both free throws

At that point, the scare was over. Tennessee had turned a 32-32 tie into a 55-38 lead, a 23-6 run that showed why this team is currently ranked 1st all-time in our game.

Closing Minutes

Score TN-AU| Team| 8-side| 6-sides| 20-side| Player| Result

—| AU| 5| 42| 13| DeWanna Bonner (AU-5)| Foul

—| TN| 6| 44| 16| Tamika Catchings (TN-3)| Missed shot

—| —| —| —| —| DeWanna Bonner (AU-5)| Rebound

—| AU| 5| 44| 17| DeWanna Bonner (AU-5)| Missed shot

—| —| —| —| —| Chamique Holdsclaw (TN-5)| Rebound

—| TN| 6| 64| 14| Tamika Catchings (TN-3)| Missed shot

—| —| —| 5| 9| Kristen Clement (TN-1)| Rebound

—| —| 4| 46| 14| Semeka Randall Lay (TN-4)| Missed shot

—| —| —| 2| 9| Whitney Boddie (AU-1)| Rebound

—| AU| 8| 42| 14| DeWanna Bonner (AU-5)| Foul

—| TN| 5| 42| 14| Chamique Holdsclaw (TN-5)| Foul

—| AU| 2| 22| 5| Kellie Harper (TN-2)| Blocked shot

—| —| —| 2| 16| Tamika Catchings (TN-3)| Rebound

—| TN| 2| 62| 13| Alli Smalley (AU-2)| Fourth foul

56-38| TN| —| —| —| Kellie Harper (TN-2)| Makes 1 of 2; 80% shooter has 1-16 FT range

—| AU| 6| 41| 17| Alli Smalley (AU-2)| Foul

58-38| TN| 1| 32| 8| Kristen Clement (TN-1)| Basket

58-40| AU| 1| 14| 6| Whitney Boddie (AU-1)| Basket

60-40| TN| 6| 53| 7| Tamika Catchings (TN-3)| Basket

—| AU| 8| 51| 7| DeWanna Bonner (AU-5)| Missed shot

—| —| —| —| —| Chamique Holdsclaw (TN-5)| Rebound

—| TN| 4| 55| 20| Semeka Randall Lay (TN-4)| Missed shot

—| —| —| —| —| DeWanna Bonner (AU-5)| Rebound

—| AU| 5| 52| 5| DeWanna Bonner (AU-5)| Missed shot

—| —| —| —| —| Chamique Holdsclaw (TN-5)| Rebound

—| TN| 7| 32| 13| Chamique Holdsclaw (TN-5)| Missed shot

—| —| —| 3| 11| DeWanna Bonner (AU-5)| Rebound

60-42| AU| 2| 63| 7| Alli Smalley (AU-2)| Basket

62-42| TN| 1| 56| 7| Kristen Clement (TN-1)| Basket

62-44| AU| 1| 63| 1| Whitney Boddie (AU-1)| Basket

—| TN| 6| 12| 10| Sherell Hobbs (AU-3)| Only second foul on Hobbs

64-44| TN| —| —| —| Tamika Catchings (TN-3)| Makes both free throws — 85%, 1-17 FT range

—| AU| 2| 44| 9| Kellie Harper (TN-2)| Turnover

64-46| AU| —| —| —| Alli Smalley (AU-2)| Makes both free throws

—| TN| 5| 42| 16| Chamique Holdsclaw (TN-5)| Foul

—| AU| 6| 7| 32| Tamika Catchings (TN-3)| Blocked shot

—| —| —| —| —| DeWanna Bonner (AU-5)| Rebound

64-48| AU| 8| 25| 8| DeWanna Bonner (AU-5)| Basket

66-48| TN| 4| 25| 6| Semeka Randall Lay (TN-4)| Basket

66-50| AU| 1| 46| 5| Whitney Boddie (AU-1)| Basket

69-50| TN| 3| 46| 2| Tamika Catchings (TN-3)| 3-pointer

69-52| AU| 2| 43| 5| Alli Smalley (AU-2)| Basket

Final: Tennessee 1998 69, Auburn 2009 52

The final margin makes the game look much easier than it was.

Auburn led 28-25, trailed only 30-28 at halftime, and tied the game 32-32 early in the second half. From there, Tennessee's all-time talent took control.

The decisive stretch was a 23-6 Tennessee run, turning that 32-32 tie into a 55-38 advantage.

The experiment of forcing the designated home team onto the road also produced several interesting moments. Kellie Harper had rolls that could have resulted in additional foul calls at home, while Auburn benefited from the home-court adjustment on a key Tamika Catchings defensive roll.

But once Chamique Holdsclaw and Tamika Catchings started dominating both ends, Auburn's upset bid was finished.

For a while, though, the 2009 Tigers gave the 39-0 Tennessee national champions a much bigger scare than anyone would have expected.

And we saved it for the end - but here is the box score.

Bonner completely matched Tennessee leading scorer Chamique Holdsclaw, holding her to a 14-14 tie in scoring, only losing the rebounding edge 11-12, and barely losing the other three stats (1-2 in blocked shots, 5-3 in turnovers and 4 to 3 in steals).That is why the game was close into the 2nd half.

However, in the end there was once again no match for the player we rank as the greatest player ever to play college basketball, Tamika Catchings, who had a game-high 20 points and 3 blocked shots, with her 7 rebounds being the most of anyone except the two centers, and adding 2 steals. That was why the Vols pulled away for the 17 point win.

 

Pos	Starting Tennessee Vols (69)	Pts	Reb	Blocks	TO	Steal
1-PG	Kristen Clement	9	5	0	4	1
2-SG	Kellie Harper	5	2	1	5	1
3-SF	Tamika Catchings	20	7	3	3	2
4-PF	Semeka Randall Lay	6	3	1	0	0
5-C	Chamique Holdsclaw	14	12	2	3	4
Pos	Reserves	Pts	Reb	Blocks	TO	Steal
1-PG	Laurie Milligan	3	1	0	0	1
2-SG	Brynae Laxton	2	1	0	0	0
3-SF	Niya Butts	5	1	0	0	0
4-PF	LaShonda Stephens	3	1	0	0	0
5-C	Teresa Geter	2	3	2	1	0
Totals		69	36	9	16	9
Pos	Starting Auburn Tigers (52)	Pts	Reb	Blocks	TO	Steal
1-PG	Whitney Boddie	8	4	0	3	3
2-SG	Alli Smalley	11	2	0	6	2
3-SF	Sherell Hobbs	5	5	0	4	0
4-PF	Trevesha Jackson	4	4	1	1	0
5-C	DeWanna Bonner	14	11	1	5	3
Pos	Reserves	Pts	Reb	Blocks	TO	Steal
1-PG	Morgan Jennings	2	1	0	1	0
2-SG	Reneisha Hobbs	2	2	0	0	0
3-SF	Parrisha Simmons	2	1	0	0	0
4-PF	Chantel Hilliard	2	1	0	0	0
5-C	KeKe Carrier	2	1	0	1	0
Totals		52	32	2	21	8

Clark to Boston for Fever Win; We Retro Great 1st WNBA Player Swoopes vs. Oklahoma

 The Dallas Mavericks kept the NBA season alive by avoiding a sweep by the Boston Celtics, and the Indiana Fever put together only their fourth win of the season. You can click this YouTube game highlights, including this last moment in which they trailed Atlanta. Caitlin Clark had just driving toward the hoop and then given one of her patented passes to the star of the game Aliyah Boston, who was in the process of putting in the game-winning shot.

While Clark is not one of top few players in the league yet as a rookie, when she plays and average of 15,591 fans turn out, more than twice as many as turn out for other WNBA games, according to sportsnaut. In her first year overall WNBA TV viewership has almost tripled. We rank her the 8th greatest college player of all time - and included our ranking of the top 40 players of all time in our previous blog.previous blog.

Next up in our game will be the 18th greatest player of all time on our list, Sheryl Swoopes, who will debut in our Value Add Basketball Game with her Texas Tech 1993 team in what would have been a SWC or Big 12 matchup over the years against Oklahoma 2002. While Swoopes averaged 28 points a game (see box score for all stats of players below photo) the game rates as dead even with the Sooners great backcourt of future WNBA players Laneishea Caufield and Stacey Dales, who combined to average 34 points a game this senior season.

This video shows Swoops 47 point performance in one game. pparently some of the google docs to women's teams were requiring permission, and we apologize and have fixed that so anyone should be able to open and print the teams of your choice in view only or by downloading the doc to word. We will also provide a drop box option once we've double checked player cards on these last 10 teams to debut. We track ratings and all scores on this google sheet.google sheet.

You can click this YouTube video of the Fever win:

The game was such a classic, that we decided to make it a separate blog rather than just add it below.

The following is the starting box score, with the stats each player gets by position before the first roll of the dice. This is reflected on the scoresheet with the game. All 10 players get one basket made, a rebound and a foul to start the game at 20-20. The starting guards start with 1 steal, and each team starts with 3 other turnovers for 5 turnovers total. Then the starting forwards and center get an extra rebound to start with 2. The center also starts with 1 blocked shot.

Pos	Texas Tech 2003	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Ht, Pts, Reb, Ast
1-PG	Krista Gerlich	2	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	1	5'10, 12.9, 4.9, 5.3
2-SG	Noel Johnson	2	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	1	5'7, 8.8, 3.8, 3.6
3-SF	Sheryl Swoopes	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	6'0, 28.1, 9.2, 4.1
4-PF	Michi Atkins	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	6'1, 9.2, 5.1, 0.4
5-C	Cynthia Clinger	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	1	1	6'2, 10.7, 4.4, 0.6
Pos	TTU Bench	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Ht, Pts, Reb, Ast
1-PG	Stephanie Scott	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	5'9, 4.5, 3.0, 3.9
2-SG	Nikki Heath	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	5'9, 2.5, 2.8, 0.7
3-SF	Janice Farris	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	5'11, 6.0, 3.2, 1.2
4-PF	Kim Pruitt	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'1, 2.0, 0.7, 0.2
5-C	Melinda White	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	5'11, 2.3, 1.4, 0.1
	3 Turnovers	20	0	10	0	0	13	2	1	10
Pos	Oklahoma 2002	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Ht, Pts, Reb, Ast
1-PG	Stacey Dales	2	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	1	6'0, 17.0, 5.0, 4.9
2-SG	Laneishea Caufield	2	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	1	5'9, 17.4, 5.0, 2.6
3-SF	Rosalind Ross	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	5'9, 11.6, 5.3, 2.2
4-PF	Caton Hill	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	6'1, 12.6, 6.9, 2.1
5-C	Jamie Talbert	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	1	1	6'2, 7.8, 5.0, 1.0
Pos	OU Bench	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Ht, Pts, Reb, Ast
1-PG	Kate Scott	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	5'10, 1.5, 0.5, 0.6
2-SG	Dionnah Jackson-Durrett	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	5'9, 7.3, 4.7, 2.9
3-SF	Lauren Shoush	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	5'11, 1.3, 1.3, 0.7
4-PF	Stephanie Simon	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'0, 1.2, 1.2, 0.2
5-C	Lindsey Casey	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'1, 1.6, 0.6, 0.0
	3 Turnovers	20	0	10	0	0	13	2	1	10