INDIANAPOLIS - A national championship game lacking in established powers produced an overpowering performance Tuesday night in the RCA Dome.

Baylor never resembled a Final Four rookie in routing Michigan State 84-62 for the national title. Instead, the Lady Bears looked more like Tennessee and Connecticut at their Final Four best.

Remember how six-time national champion UT routed Louisiana Tech for the 1998 title? Or how five-time national champion UConn dissected UT with such ease in winning the 2000 title?

Baylor was just as dominant against Michigan State. It started fast and finished strong for its 33rd victory in 36 games.

Final Four veteran UT should have been taking notes.

The Lady Vols led Michigan State by 16 points early in the second half of its Final Four semifinal game Sunday night. The Spartans then struck back with a vengeance in a 68-64 victory that set up a national championship game between Final Four first-timers.

The Lady Bears finished what UT started. They surged to a 19-point lead in the first half. And when Michigan State cut the lead to nine, Baylor surged again.

Like Baylor, UT had an athletic advantage over Michigan State. Unlike Baylor, UT couldn't exploit it.

Baylor looked more athletic and even quicker than UT. It also had more offensive weapons - in particular, All-American Sophia Young (26 points, nine rebounds) inside and Emily Niemann (19 points, 5-for-8 on 3-pointers) outside.

And the ease with which it handled Michigan State provided compelling evidence that UT would have been overmatched in the national championship game.

Baylor fans won't be the only ones celebrating Tuesday night's outcome. It also gave proponents of parity something to shout about.

Five years ago, when UT and UConn - the preeminent programs in women's basketball - played for a national championship, Baylor was a basketball nobody, 7-20 overall and last in the Big 12.

Enter Kim Mulkey-Robertson, a former Louisiana Tech assistant who led the Lady Techsters to two national championships as a point guard.

Mulkey-Robertson built her team mainly on in-state recruiting but added a couple of foreign players in Young of St. Vincent, West Indies, and Abiola Wabara of Parma, Italy.

"We just won a national championship with no players recruited by the powers-that-be," Mulkey-Robertson said. "That gives hope to everyone."

Her Lady Bears overtook established Big 12 programs like Texas, Oklahoma and Texas Tech during the regular season. They took care of the national elite in the NCAA tournament, knocking off three No. 1 seeds en route to the championship.

If Baylor can do it, why can't anyone else? Michigan State, which had never advanced beyond the second round of the NCAA tournament before this season, raises the same question.

Parity still isn't nearly the factor in women's basketball that it is in the men's game. You saw that in the first two rounds of the NCAA tournaments.

In the men's tournament, national championship contenders like Kansas and Syracuse lost to double-digit seeds in the first round, second-seeded Wake Forest didn't make it past the second round, and No. 1 seed Washington lost in the Sweet 16.

In the women's tournament, the top three seeds won their first-round games by an average of 33.7 points. Nine of those 12 games were decided by more than 30 points; the smallest margin of victory was 17 points.

Only one of the top three women's seeds lost in the second round. The other 11 second-round games involving the top three seeds were decided by an average of 16.7 points.

The women's game still hasn't developed to the extent that a mid-major can make an impact. But it has evolved to the point where a program that's committed to winning can find room at the top.

A former basketball nobody proved that in dominant fashion Tuesday night.

Sports editor John Adams may be reached at 865-342-6284 or adamsj@knews.com.