Regional attendance figures from Paul --

Philadelphia, PA (11,769)
Sunday -- 5,317
Tuesday -- 6,452

Tempe, AZ (11,426)
Saturday -- 8,213
Monday -- 3,213

Chattanooga, TN (10,788)
Saturday -- 5,702
Monday -- 5,086

Kansas City, MO (5,618)
Sunday -- 3,143
Tuesday -- 2,475


Mary Jo had these thoughts on the media in those markets:

No question -- Philadelphia and Kansas City get A+.

Reporter Mel Greenberg at the Philadelphia Inquirer and Mechelle Voepel at the Kansas City Star did outstanding jobs in their coverage, setting up readers with well-researched features for their region's games.

Greenberg had, as expected, a piece on Pat Summitt, and even though Pat has been blanketed with coverage, Mel uncovered some new material. He's smart enough to gain quotes from Hall of Fame SID Debby Jennings one of the best in the business in providing info to the media.

Voepel has a solid commentary on Stanford's rivalry with Connecticut. She knows her history and she has a second story lamenting the absence of Kansas State in the games. This is a peg you have to make with your locals, something Greenberg did not have to do despite Temple's loss because Rutgers is close enough (60 miles) to be a home team.

And BeKnighted wrote in with a theory about why women's basketball fans won't show up to watch teams other than their own.

Maybe it's that many WCBB fans aren't sports fans first. I came to the game as someone who already liked sports, and so I want to see the good games regardless of who's playing, but I know a lot of people who came to the game through their local teams and don't really care about much else. It sort of reminds me of a friend of mine who was a fan of Bob Dernier, and who switched her allegiance from the Phillies to the Cubs when he changed teams. It seemed strange to me, but it made perfect sense to her. In the same way, I don't understand how you can be a big fan of a team, and learn a lot about other teams along the way, and not be a fan of the game, but it's obviously not that hard for other people.