Leaps and bounds

Kim Mulkey-Robertson arrived in New Orleans still smarting from the pain of a pair of last-second free throws. Tennessee had just eliminated her Baylor team, after a scrum led to the tiebreaking foul shots and knocked the Bears out in the Sweet 16 of the 2004 NCAA Tournament.

Mulkey-Robertson, who grew up in Hammond, La., had come home for this Final Four, back to the state in which she played and coached for 19 years at Louisiana Tech. The Lady Techsters always drew great crowds, fans crammed into arenas to see a team that won two of the first six NCAA championships and made the Tournament in every one of those 19 years. But she hadn't seen anything like this.

''It just made me reflect back on how far we've come," said Mulkey-Robertson. ''Looking at the crowd, looking at the entertainment. [I was] proud. Proud that I'm a part of this great game; proud that they want it to be the best, that they want to expose little girls to it at the highest level.

''I saw fans that were there for their school, but I saw fans that were there for women's basketball. I think fans earlier just pulled for their teams. Now it's an event, People plan for it."

Far from its roots in the old Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women -- its last national title was also won by Mulkey-Robertson's Louisiana Tech team -- women's college basketball has grown exponentially, requiring 20,000-seat arenas for its Final Four and bringing millions of dollars to its host cities. The sport has changed over the past 25 years, with increased parity, more skilled players, more dollars flooding in to build programs, and competition for top recruits spilling down from just a few top schools (read: Tennessee and Connecticut) to a more diverse group of programs and coaches.

And it will all be on display in Boston April 2 and 4, when the NCAA Final Four is held at the TD Banknorth Garden. And this season, there'll be a little nod to history added to the spectacle.

Patricia Henry admits Boston's organizing committee didn't know about the significance of the 2006 Final Four when the team submitted its bid in the summer of 2001.

Five cities -- Boston, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Phoenix, and St. Louis -- had reached finalist status for the 2005-07 Women's Final Fours.

But 2006 was the big one -- the 25th anniversary of the NCAA Women's Final Four and the 100th anniversary of the NCAA. Not that Henry, the president of the Board of Directors of the Boston Local Organizing Committee and the senior associate director of athletics at Harvard, and her compatriots knew anything about it.

They do now.

So when the Final Four arrives in the Hub in April (its first trip beyond Philadelphia into the Northeast), the focus won't just be on the games. The 25th anniversary team, comprising five players and one coach, will be honored. The NCAA also brings its YES Clinics and Hoop City events to the city. The YES Clinics, for ages 10 to 18, match up collegiate coaches and athletes with local players. Hoop City is an interactive program that includes clinics and competitions.

But BLOC is planning its own programming, key for those who want to participate but don't have tickets, since Boston's Final Four -- which could bring nearly $25 million into the city -- is already sold out.

''We've made this a priority to hold some of these events and have them have a lasting effect," Henry said. ''[We'll take] local college basketball programs and have them match up with a local community center to establish a relationship between the two, sort of a mentoring event. Obviously those that get some traction will be part of a legacy. We just think that's really important."

''My experience has taught me that it can be creative touches," said Don Stirling, the CEO of BLOC. ''The 'ah-ha' experience. Not everybody will be able to get into the building for those three games. What do we do for those who want to touch and feel the Final Four, even though they can't get a seat? Fan Fest. YES Clinics. Young men and women throughout the region will gather with players and coaches and learn things about the sport and what makes a winner. [We have] things up our sleeve that will capture emotion of the celebration."

Starting in 1995, women's basketball devolved into a tournament that, almost without exception, spit out either Tennessee or Connecticut at its end. That's 11 years, five titles for the Huskies, three for the Lady Vols, and one each for Notre Dame, Purdue, and, last season's champion, Baylor. With the Bears' unexpected win in 2005, media hailed the advent of parity into the women's game. Dynasties would be untenable. The domination of a few, as in the men's game, would be a thing of the past.

Funny, though. Guess who's favored in 2006?

With the addition -- albeit a year delayed -- of Candace Parker to Tennessee's roster, the Lady Vols have the best chance to be celebrating on Causeway Street. But Duke, ranked first in the preseason Associated Press poll, is right behind them with a depth chart that skyrocketed from eight players last year to 13 at the start of this season. Just 5 points separated Duke and Tennessee in the Associated Press poll, the closest vote since the media became involved in 1994.

''If Tennessee's healthy, they should have a monster year," Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer said. ''I'd put good money on Tennessee. Traditionally they've done it. The thing that's so difficult is chemistry. I think that the right chemistry is there for Tennessee."

It's more than likely that Duke and Tennessee will show up in Boston once March's madness has ended. The question is who the other two teams will be.

One could be LSU, with Seimone Augustus. Or Baylor, the defending national champions. Or Ohio State. Or Rutgers. Or Stanford. Or North Carolina. Remember, few picked Baylor to win it all in 2005.

A less likely participant is Connecticut. Though most of the same players are back from last year's regional semifinal team, none of them are stars. The Huskies don't have that one player -- such as Augustus or Ohio State's Jessica Davenport or Rutgers's Cappie Pondexter or Stanford's Candice Wiggins -- to insert them into the national title picture, though they are No. 9 in the AP poll.

With injuries already beginning to play a part in sifting through the contenders -- Rutgers's Matee Ajavon and Essence Carson have barely been able to practice and Georgia has lost four frontcourt players, three to injuries during the preseason -- Parker could play an even bigger role. And not just this year.

Parker's the dunker. But she's more than that.

''Right now she's at a different level because she's 6-3," said Duke coach Gail Goestenkors, who recruited Parker. ''We all know she can dunk. [But] she's not just an athlete, she's a very skilled player. It really separates her from most others. It's exciting to see what she can become. She was the first girls' high school player to announce her decision on ESPN. I think it's the first of many firsts for her. I think she's opening some doors that have maybe only cracked open. I think she's going to bust through them."

Thirty-seven media credentials were issued for the 1982 Final Four, the first one under the auspices of the NCAA. Last year, in the 2004 version, 460 were given out, plus another 229 for ESPN.

This is, clearly, not the same game.

It has grown in popularity, in skill, in just about everything. It is becoming increasingly less predictable. The upsets, especially come tournament time, are the beauty of men's college basketball. Now, more and more, that's becoming the norm in the women's version, as well.

''In the '70s, we had some good players," former Louisiana Tech coach and Hall of Famer Leon Barmore said. ''But now there's a lot of great players. I'm not saying everyone's Seimone Augustus or Nancy Lieberman. The next level have improved their game so much that it just makes for a lot of good play."

And, with the increased base of talent, top programs no longer gain all the skill and the size. Players who, in years past, would have considered only Tennessee have options with Duke or Michigan State or, with programs on the rise such as Southern California and Maryland.

It's a game still maturing, the latest stop on its rise on display at the Garden in April.

''Every aspect of the game has changed," Goestenkors said. ''When I do speaking engagements, I always tell the crowd that, if they haven't seen women's basketball lately, they haven't seen the game. It's so much more physical, more athletic. The coaches are better; the players are better. More fans, more excitement, more pressure. It's an entirely different game than it was 10 years ago."