" The Army in general thrives on winning. It's what we do," says co-captain Megan Vrabel, the only senior starter. "For the women of this institution to show they can be this competitive in sports is a big step."

West Point, which went coeducational in 1976, continues to be male-dominated; there are 600 women among the 4,000 cadets. Yet they are showing how much they can boost morale even in a time of war.

"This is a special group. To give them a chance to play in the NCAAs is just a great feeling," she says. "When I came here, I wanted to help change perceptions of this place and show people what we can accomplish."

The long-awaited NCAA appearance should aid recruiting for Dixon, whose older brother, Jamie, leads the Pittsburgh men's team against Kent State on Friday in its tournament opener.

Not since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1994, when North Carolina won the ACC's only national title, has a conference had two No. 1 seeds and a No. 2.

In recent years, the Duke Blue Devils were the ACC's primary dominant force — reaching three of the last seven Final Fours — but they weren't as prepared for the rigors of the postseason as now.

"There were several years where we really dominated and didn't lose any games for a couple of years. I don't know how good that was for us because we weren't tested on a daily basis," Duke coach Gail Goestenkors says.

McGlade played in the first ACC women's tournament, in 1978 at the University of Virginia campus where only 2,750 total attended all three rounds of games. "We were just glad we were on a court and could play and had an ACC tournament like the men," she says.

"There's a good message in all of this that the investment has been made, quality coaches have been hired, they're recruiting outstanding players. You're seeing some significantly increased attendance."

When Maryland hosted Duke in a regular-season game last year, it was before an ACC-record crowd of 17,243. The conference tournament also set a record with 48,108 total in Greensboro, N.C.

When North Carolina hosted a rematch with Duke in their second No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup Feb. 25, it marked the first advanced sell-out for a Tar Heels women's game. There was a standing-room-only crowd of 8,305 at Carmichael Auditorium.

"I'm not surprised. We are growing at a really steady rate. It's very predictable right now," McGlade says. "It's because of everyone from our marketing department to coaches running their programs. Everybody is doing their part.

Duke is the only team from the ACC that has made the Final Four since 2000. The Blue Devils were the last ACC team to make the national championship game, too, in a 1999 loss to Purdue.

That game, however, proved to be the turning point in landing blue-chip prospects for Duke. Goestenkors points to TV exposure as the fulcrum that has lifted not just her program but the entire league to new heights.

According to league figures, the ACC has gone from seven nationally televised games in 1995-96 to 28 in 2004-05. It had 103 total national and regional TV appearances last year, more than double from 10 years ago.

"When we went to the Final Four in '99, nobody knew who Duke women's basketball was," Goestenkors says. "But it was a snowball effect. So many recruits saw us on TV when we were able to beat Tennessee in the semifinal to get there, and we piggybacked off that for our best recruiting class ever."

Five players from the 2004 team, most notably Crystal Langhorne (Maryland), also selected ACC schools. That's the most for any two-year period for the ACC since the teams' inception in 1983.

"It all gets back to recruiting," Goestenkors says. "Now year-in and year-out (the ACC has) teams that have top-10 recruiting classes. That's when you develop a powerhouse."

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