AP article on Baylor's win tonight

[96bulldog]

Anyone catch the AP article that went out with Baylor's win tonight over Tennessee? You can read it here, but for those of you who want to get right to the point, read on.

The author's lead is this:
"Baylor has just two wins to go for 40-0. Tennessee's future is far less certain."

And five paragraphs later, he writes:
"The Lady Bears (38-0), who are back in the national semifinals for the second time in three years, will face either Stanford or Duke on Sunday night in Denver. Should Baylor win it all, it'll become the first men's or women's team in NCAA history to finish a year with 40 wins." (emphasis added)

I looked it up and according to this season's media guide, the 1979-80 Lady Techsters went 40-5. You can find it yourself here.

The guy is a great writer, and this article was particularly well done. He even quotes Kim Mulkey a couple of paragraphs later saying:
"'Defense wins ballgames for you," Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said. "I guess learned from two of the best. I learned from (Summitt) and (former Louisiana Tech coach) Leon Barmore, you better guard people. And these kids are going to guard you.'"

I tweeted him with this response:
@LukeMeredithAP Great article on Baylor. But does NCAA history cover the Lady Techsters 79-80 season? They went 40-5. http://bit.ly/GTgP7p

So does anyone know if anything before the 1981-82 season is considered part of NCAA history for women's basketball?

Even if it doesn't, I still feel somewhat slighted. I even think it would add to the article to mention that Kim Mulkey's Lady Bears would be joining her alma mater in reaching 40 wins in one season. BTW, Mulkey joined the Lady Techsters the very next year as a freshman.

[RealityCheck]

NCAA records start with 1981-1982. Nothing that occurred before then is a part of official NCAA records.

[dawg80]

As I recall, the Techsters entered that year's Final Four 40-3, and lost the semi and then the "the 3rd place" game they used to play. I remember wondering that year why Barmore scheduled so many games, lots of tournies. Team was fairly spent by the time they reached the FF.

[TechDawgMc]

The NCAA doesn't count the AIAW years at all. That's why we're only considered to have two NCAA titles. I've heard Kim correct several writers when they asked her about 40 wins and point out that Tech has already done it.

[96bulldog]

Yep, that's pretty much what the writer said.

Too bad Kim wasn't on that team. That would make it a really interesting story.