Basketball tournament is a series of contests involving a relatively large number of teams. A number of basketball teams compete and the one that prevails through the final round or that finishes with the best record is declared the winner.

The term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: (a) One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentrated into a relatively short time interval. (b) A competition involving multiple matches, each involving a subset of the competitors, with the overall tournament winner determined based on the combined results of these individual matches.

A famous form of basketball tournaments are the NCAA basketball tournaments men and women for Divisions I, II and III.

The 2006 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament, marked the 25th NCAA Women's Basketball National Championship. The events were held March 18 – April 4, 2006 at several sites, with the Championship game held in Boston. The Maryland Terrapins, coached by Brenda Frese, won their first National Championship, beating the Duke Blue Devils, coached by Gail Goestenkors, 78–75 in overtime. Laura Harper of the Terrapins was named Most Outstanding Player.

The field is set at 64 teams, with 31 automatic bids and 33 at-large bids. Unlike the men's game, there is no play-in game. In addition, the first two rounds and regionals are usually played on "neutral" sites.

This was the first Women's final four since 1999 not to have either Connecticut or Tennessee.

Notable events

In the Albuquerque Regional, Boston College upset the number one seed, Ohio State, in the second round. BC went on to play fifth seeded Utah in the regional semifinal, but Utah won by three points. Utah then played Maryland in the Regional final. With under eight seconds to go in regulation, Utah was trailing by a single point, with Shona Thorburn at the free throw line for two shots. She only made one, and the game went into overtime. This was familiar territory for the Terrapins, who were now playing in the fifth overtime game of their season. They had won the previous four, and would outscore Utah 12–2 to advance to the Final Four.