The Auburn women's basketball team has been consistently competitive both nationally and within the SEC. Despite playing in the same conference as perennial powerhouse Tennessee and other competitive programs such as LSU, Georgia, Kentucky and Vanderbilt, Auburn has won five regular season SEC championships and four SEC Tournament championships. AU has made nineteen appearances in the NCAA women's basketball tournament and only twice, in the Tigers first appearance in 1982 and in 2008, have the Tigers lost in the first round. Auburn played in three consecutive National Championship games in 1988, 1989 and 1990, and won the Women's NIT in 2003. When Coach Joe Ciampi announced his retirement after twenty-five years at the end of the 2003–2004 season, the resulting search snared the highly ex