| Gender: | Women's |
| Year: | 1991 |
| Teams: | 48 |
| Finalfourarena: | Lakefront Arena |
| Finalfourcity: | New Orleans, Louisiana |
| Champions: | Tennessee Volunteers |
| Titlecount: | 3rd |
| Champgamecount: | 4th |
| Champffcount: | 7th |
| Runnerup: | Virginia Cavaliers |
| Gamecount: | 1st |
| Runnerffcount: | 2nd |
| Semifinal1: | Stanford Cardinal |
| Finalfourcount: | 2nd |
| Semifinal2: | Connecticut Huskies |
| Finalfourcount2: | 1st |
| Coach: | Pat Summitt |
| Coachcount: | 3rd |
| Mop: | Dawn Staley |
| Mopteam: | Virginia |
The 1991 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament began on March 13 and ended on March 31. The tournament featured 48 teams. The Final Four event was hosted by the University of New Orleans, and held at the Lakefront Arena in New Orleans. The Final Four teams consisted of Tennessee, Stanford, Connecticut, and Virginia, with Tennessee defeating Virginia 70-67 (OT) to win its third NCAA title.[1] Virginia's Dawn Staley was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.[2]
This tournament was the first to adopt the FIBA's 10ths-second clock during the final minute of each period, unlike whole seconds as in past seasons.
James Madison earned an 8 seed and beat the 9 seed, Kentucky in a first round match-up. This set up a game between the Dukes, and the number 1 seed in the East Regional Penn State, with the game played on the Penn State home court. The game started out in favor of the home team, as they scored the first eleven points of the game, forcing JMU coach Sheila Moorman to call a timeout. The lead extended, with the Nittany Lions pulling out to a 24–9. The coach decided to stress defense and it helped, but Penn State held a 41–29 lead at halftime. The team continued to stress defense in the second half, and the Dukes held Penn State to six points in the first eight minutes of the second half. The Dukes took a lead, and were up by four points with under twelve minutes to go. Penn State cut the lead to two points, and with 19 seconds to go attempted a three-point shot for the win, but the shot was blocked, and JMU would upset the top seed. It was only the second time in the ten-year history of the NCAA tournament that a number 1 seed had failed to advance to the regional. Coincidentally, first time was in 1986 when number 1 seeded Virginia failed to reach the regional when they were defeated by James Madison.
10th seeded Vanderbilt upset 7th seeded South Carolina, then went on to defeat the second seeded Purdue 69–63, to advance to the regional, where they would lose to Auburn. 10th seeded Lamar upset 7th seeded Texas, then went on to a 20-point victory over second seeded LSU. Oklahoma State faced Michigan State in a game that would go to three overtimes. Oklahoma State won 96–94.
Connecticut defeated Clemson in the Regional final to earn their first trip to a Final Four. There they would take on one seeded Virginia. Connecticut's coach, Geno Auriemma started his women's basketball college coaching career as an assistant coach under Debbie Ryan at Virginia. In a game identified in 2009 as one of the top ten games in UConn history, Tonya Cardoza scored 16 points for the Cavaliers, including four three throws in the final second to help Virginia defeat Connecticut 61–55. Tonya Cardoza would go on to become an assistant coach at Connecticut for many years.
In the other semifinal game, Tennessee defeated Stanford 68–60 to advance to the championship game against Virginia. The Cavaliers would lead by five points with under two minutes to go, but Tennessee's Dena Head scored, was fouled, and converted the free throw to cut the margin to two points. Virginia failed to score, then fouled Head with seconds to go, who sank the free throws to send the game to overtime. Head continued to hit free throws in overtime, and the Volunteers went on to win the game and the national championship 70–67.
Forty-eight teams were selected to participate in the 1991 NCAA Tournament. Twenty-one conferences were eligible for an automatic bid to the 1991 NCAA tournament.
Twenty-seven additional teams were selected to complete the forty-eight invitations.
Twenty-one conferences earned an automatic bid. In ten cases, the automatic bid was the only representative from the conference. Two conferences, Metro Atlantic and Patriot sent a single representative as an at-large team. Twenty-five additional at-large teams were selected from ten of the conferences.
| Bids | Conference | Teams | |
| 7 | Southeastern | LSU, Auburn, Georgia, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Vanderbilt | |
| 4 | Atlantic Coast | North Carolina St., Clemson, Maryland, Virginia | |
| 4 | Big Ten | Purdue, Iowa, Michigan St., Northwestern | |
| 4 | Pacific-10 | Stanford, Southern California, Washington, Washington St. | |
| 3 | Atlantic 10 | Penn St., George Washington, Rutgers | |
| 3 | Big West | Long Beach St., Cal St. Fullerton, UNLV | |
| 3 | Southwest | Arkansas, Texas, Texas Tech | |
| 2 | American South | Louisiana Tech, Lamar | |
| 2 | Big East | Connecticut, Providence | |
| 2 | Colonial | Richmond, James Madison | |
| 2 | Metro | Florida St., South Carolina | |
| 1 | Big Eight | Oklahoma St. | |
| 1 | Big Sky | Montana | |
| 1 | Metro Atlantic | Fairfield | |
| 1 | Mid-American | Toledo | |
| 1 | Missouri Valley | Missouri St. | |
| 1 | North Star | DePaul | |
| 1 | Ohio Valley | Tennessee Tech | |
| 1 | Patriot | Holy Cross | |
| 1 | Southern | Appalachian St. | |
| 1 | Southland | Stephen F. Austin | |
| 1 | Sun Belt | Western Ky. | |
| 1 | Western Athletic | Utah |
In 1991, the field remained at 48 teams. The teams were seeded, and assigned to four geographic regions, with seeds 1-12 in each region. In Round 1, seeds 8 and 9 faced each other for the opportunity to face the 1 seed in the second round, seeds 7 and 10 played for the opportunity to face the 2 seed, seeds 5 and 12 played for the opportunity to face the 4 seed, and seeds 6 and 11 played for the opportunity to face the 3 seed. In the first two rounds, the higher seed was given the opportunity to host the first-round game. In most cases, the higher seed accepted the opportunity. The exceptions:
The following table lists the region, host school, venue and the thirty-two first and second round locations:
The Regionals, named for the general location, were held from March 22 to March 24 at these sites:
Each regional winner advanced to the Final Four, held March 30 and March 31 in New Orleans, Louisiana at the Lakefront Arena, co-hosted by University of New Orleans & Tulane University.
The forty-eight teams came from thirty states, plus Washington, D.C. California and Texas had the most teams with four each. Twenty states did not have any teams receiving bids.
| Bids | State | Teams | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | California | Long Beach St., Stanford, Cal St. Fullerton, Southern California | |
| 4 | Texas | Stephen F. Austin, Lamar, Texas, Texas Tech | |
| 3 | Tennessee | Tennessee Tech, Tennessee, Vanderbilt | |
| 3 | Virginia | Richmond, James Madison, Virginia | |
| 2 | Connecticut | Connecticut, Fairfield | |
| 2 | Illinois | DePaul, Northwestern | |
| 2 | Kentucky | Western Ky., Kentucky | |
| 2 | Louisiana | Louisiana Tech, LSU | |
| 2 | North Carolina | Appalachian St., North Carolina St. | |
| 2 | South Carolina | Clemson, South Carolina | |
| 2 | Washington | Washington, Washington St. | |
| 1 | Alabama | Auburn | |
| 1 | Arkansas | Arkansas | |
| 1 | District of Columbia | George Washington | |
| 1 | Florida | Florida St. | |
| 1 | Georgia | Georgia | |
| 1 | Indiana | Purdue | |
| 1 | Iowa | Iowa | |
| 1 | Maryland | Maryland | |
| 1 | Massachusetts | Holy Cross | |
| 1 | Michigan | Michigan St. | |
| 1 | Mississippi | Ole Miss | |
| 1 | Missouri | Missouri St. | |
| 1 | Montana | Montana | |
| 1 | Nevada | UNLV | |
| 1 | New Jersey | Rutgers | |
| 1 | Ohio | Toledo | |
| 1 | Oklahoma | Oklahoma St. | |
| 1 | Pennsylvania | Penn St. | |
| 1 | Rhode Island | Providence | |
| 1 | Utah | Utah |
First and second-round games played at higher seed except where noted.
Seventeen conferences had more than one bid, or at least one win in NCAA Tournament play:
| Conference |
| Record | Win % | Round of 32 | Sweet Sixteen | Elite Eight | Final Four | Championship Game | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southeastern | 7 | .647 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Atlantic Coast | 4 | .636 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Pacific-10 | 4 | .556 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | – | ||
| Big Ten | 4 | .333 | 4 | – | – | – | – | ||
| Big West | 3 | .500 | 3 | 1 | – | – | – | ||
| Atlantic 10 | 3 | .250 | 2 | – | – | – | – | ||
| Southwest | 3 | .250 | 1 | 1 | – | – | – | ||
| Big East | 2 | .667 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | – | ||
| American South | 2 | .600 | 1 | 1 | 1 | – | – | ||
| Colonial | 2 | .500 | 1 | 1 | – | – | – | ||
| Metro | 2 | .333 | 1 | – | – | – | – | ||
| Big Eight | 1 | .667 | 1 | 1 | – | – | – | ||
| Gateway | 1 | .500 | 1 | – | – | – | – | ||
| Mid-American | 1 | .500 | 1 | – | – | – | – | ||
| Patriot | 1 | .500 | 1 | – | – | – | – | ||
| Southland | 1 | .500 | 1 | – | – | – | – | ||
| Sun Belt | 1 | .500 | 1 | 1 | – | – | – |