2019 WNIT Tournament Central

[Carnac]

While we're waiting for the NCAA tournament to begin on Friday, the WNIT begins on Wednesday March 20 (Round 1 march 20-22) for those who may be interested. Cincinnati, Houston and USF from the AAC are participating.

Postseason WNIT Tournament Overview
The Women's National Invitation Tournament is an annual tournament involving 64 of the nation's top women's Division I basketball teams. All games, including the semifinals and championship, are hosted by participating schools. Every round is single elimination.

Format
The Postseason WNIT features 32 first-round games, followed by 16 second-round games, eight third-round games, four quarterfinal games, two semifinal games, and the championship. The championship game is televised live nationally. The event offers 32 automatic berths, one to each established conference, and 32 at-large berths. The WNIT field and bracket is announced late on the evening of the NCAA Tournament selections.

2019 Postseason WNIT
The 64-team tournament is a single-elimination event with all games played at sites of host schools. The WNIT is committed to offering deserved opportunities to women's basketball programs, and the 2019 Postseason WNIT features a full 64-team bracket.

The WNIT offers teams an opportunity to get more practices in, to experience playoff-atmosphere games, to play in front of passionate fans, and to use their WNIT success as a springboard to the next season.

2019 Dates
The 64-team field will be announced late Monday evening, March 18, 2019. The first round will kick off Wednesday, March 20, with the event culminating on Saturday, April 6 with the championship.

• Selection - Monday, March 18.
• Round 1 - March 20-22.
• Round 2 - March 23-26.
• Round 3 - March 27-29.
• Round 4 - March 30-31.
• Semifinals - April 3-4.
• Championship - Saturday, April 6, 3 p.m. ET.

[LINK]

 

[eebmg]

No seeding? How are matchups determined?

 

[Plebe]

No seeding? How are matchups determined?

No seeding, but teams are grouped into "tiers" to achieve some balance across the bracket:

Event Info - WNIT Pre and Post Tournament

Tiered Grouping Procedures
The Process
After the WNIT committee chooses the 64 teams adhering to the above-mentioned selection process, the teams are grouped into tiers. The system is used to establish teams' strengths to assist in the bracketing process.
The committee groups the 64 teams using a combination of tools, including the ranking systems and other criteria listed in the selection process.
This is a general placement of what is considered a distribution of the field strength.

 

[DefenseBB]

Houston lost in OT to Arkansas Cincinnati beat Youngstown St USF crushed Stetson
Tell you what, Cin has been a real surprise which validated the move they made last year. Do you think Geno gave José some tidbits on their European adventure last week?

 

[Charliebball]

nice to see somebody enjoying the WNIT

 

[triaddukefan]

Welp... the Piedmont Triad is done for WCBB this season...... My Aggies went up to James Madison...... and came back home with a 48-37 loss.

 

[UConnCat]

Cincinnati defeated Minnesota today 72-65.

 

[Plebe]

Cincinnati defeated Minnesota today 72-65.

That's an eye-opening win for Cincinnati. This could be a program on the rise.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Where's @Striper69 ? Arkansas demolished UAB today 100-52.

 

[Plebe]

South Florida fell in the 2nd round to James Madison today, 71-54

The WNIT now has its Sweet 16 set:

TCU @ Arkansas (these were 2 of the committee's "last 4 out")​

Butler @ Cincinnati​

​

Idaho @ Arizona​

Pepperdine @ Wyoming​

​

Northwestern @ West Virginia​

Western Kentucky @ Ohio​

​

Virginia Tech @ James Madison (coach Brooks visits his former school)​

Georgetown @ Providence​

​

Conference representation:
3 Big East
2 Big 12
1 each from AAC, ACC, Big Sky, Big Ten, Colonial, C-USA, MAC, Mountain West, Pac-12, SEC, WCC

 

[nwhoopfan]

Go Arizona. McDonald had 20 points 11 rebounds 7 assists today. Wouldn't mind seeing them make a deep run in the NIT and springboard to further improvement next year. Probably will be in NCAA Tourney or bust mode.

 

[Plebe]

Go Arizona. McDonald had 20 points 11 rebounds 7 assists today. Wouldn't mind seeing them make a deep run in the NIT and springboard to further improvement next year. Probably will be in NCAA Tourney or bust mode.

Frankly, they should make the semifinals at least. Idaho and (if I read the bracket correctly) the winner of Wyoming/Pepperdine are extremely winnable games.

 

[Striper69]

Where's @Striper69 ? Arkansas demolished UAB today 100-52.

Yeah, I was watching the score on google. Wish it was televised.

 

[Striper69]

South Florida fell in the 2nd round to James Madison today, 71-54

The WNIT now has its Sweet 16 set:

TCU @ Arkansas (these were 2 of the committee's "last 4 out")​

Butler @ Cincinnati​

​

Idaho @ Arizona​

Pepperdine @ Wyoming​

​

Northwestern @ West Virginia​

Western Kentucky @ Ohio​

​

Virginia Tech @ James Madison (coach Brooks visits his former school)​

Georgetown @ Providence​

​

Conference representation:
3 Big East
2 Big 12
1 each from AAC, ACC, Big Sky, Big Ten, Colonial, C-USA, MAC, Mountain West, Pac-12, SEC, WCC

The championship game will be nationally televised. I don't see why any team would decide not to take part in the tournament.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

The championship game will be nationally televised. I don't see why any team would decide not to take part in the tournament.

I get it. If you have a senior laden team who are done; if you have injury issues; if you have locker room issues.

On the other hand, I don't believe if you have a younger team or our building a team (ie Arizona and Arkansas) you should even think about not taking part.

I'm not a fan of the "not taking "seconds"" as CVS put it one year. As much as I like and respect her, I never agreed with the idea that you were too good for the WNIT. Never knew for sure if she was forced to play the year RU won it, but it was a good season to play, with Scaife new on-board. However, RU also played the next year (or year after that, I'm not sure) and, um, by game 3 they just didn't want to be there and they quit on the coaches. Disgraceful game, I'm told.

So, I do get it in some cases. But for many teams, it is a great resume builder. The side effect at Arizona is that it will be a fan base builder. As it said in the paper, and I agree, fans did not require the team to make the NCAA's, they just required the team to show that they could win games, both pulling an upset (did 2 this year), winning a game in the PAC tournament (they did) and now playing in and winning 2 games in the WNIT. Should do a lot to re-energize a fan base that was good when Joan Bonvincini was there, sagged when Niya Butts was there and, as I said, was just waiting for some good news under alum Adia Barnes.

 

[triaddukefan]

VPI @ JMU ohhhhhh boy

 

[jennyo70]

Michelle Clark-Herd can flat-out coach. She did great at Western KY and in her first year at Cincy has them in the WNIT and still playing. If I am an underperforming P5 team (I'm looking at you TN) she is at the top of my list. I know when the time comes for TN to make a coaching change, whether it be this year or next, or 5 years from now, the fans are going to want to keep the new coach "in house" or part of the Summit coaching tree. Obviously, we can't know if the administration feels the same way. However, I think it would be a grave mistake on their part to not at least explore outside the Summitt box.

 

[Magy Cannon]

Michelle Clark-Herd can flat-out coach. She did great at Western KY and in her first year at Cincy has them in the WNIT and still playing. If I am an underperforming P5 team (I'm looking at you TN) she is at the top of my list. I know when the time comes for TN to make a coaching change, whether it be this year or next, or 5 years from now, the fans are going to want to keep the new coach "in house" or part of the Summit coaching tree. Obviously, we can't know if the administration feels the same way. However, I think it would be a grave mistake on their part to not at least explore outside the Summitt box.

Jennyo70, lots of boosters don't want to stay in the Lady Vol tree. They want a proven head coach ad does the A.D.

 

[Striper69]

I get it. If you have a senior laden team who are done; if you have injury issues; if you have locker room issues.

On the other hand, I don't believe if you have a younger team or our building a team (ie Arizona and Arkansas) you should even think about not taking part.

I'm not a fan of the "not taking "seconds"" as CVS put it one year. As much as I like and respect her, I never agreed with the idea that you were too good for the WNIT. Never knew for sure if she was forced to play the year RU won it, but it was a good season to play, with Scaife new on-board. However, RU also played the next year (or year after that, I'm not sure) and, um, by game 3 they just didn't want to be there and they quit on the coaches. Disgraceful game, I'm told.

So, I do get it in some cases. But for many teams, it is a great resume builder. The side effect at Arizona is that it will be a fan base builder. As it said in the paper, and I agree, fans did not require the team to make the NCAA's, they just required the team to show that they could win games, both pulling an upset (did 2 this year), winning a game in the PAC tournament (they did) and now playing in and winning 2 games in the WNIT. Should do a lot to re-energize a fan base that was good when Joan Bonvincini was there, sagged when Niya Butts was there and, as I said, was just waiting for some good news under alum Adia Barnes.

The NIT is tailor made for the Arkansas WBB program. They have a young team that took all season to jell with everyone settling into their roles. Now they have Chelsea driving to the bucket drawing perimeter defenders to help out with Tolefree and Mason setting up into the corners to hit the trays. Monk sets the table and can drive if an opening develops.

They have to get a replacement PG for Monk next season and a legit BIG but the NIT is giving them experience in big time postseason tournaments for next year.

 

[Plebe]

West Virginia leads Northwestern by 5 in 3Q. Free stream: vs. Northwestern

 

[Plebe]

Northwestern ended the game on a 6-0 run to beat WV 56-54.

Kind of a sad season for the Mountaineers, wracked by player injuries and departures. Tynice Martin never quite returned to the astronomic heights of her sophomore season. At this point I’m assuming she’ll be back another year, although surely she could declare if she wanted to.

 

[Plebe]

Georgetown and Northwestern have already advanced to the final 8.
The remaining six Sweet 16 games are tonight.

7pm ET
Virginia Tech @ James Madison (https://portal.stretchinternet.com/jmu/portal.htm?eventId=522502&streamType=video)
Butler @ Cincinnati (WBB vs Butler WNIT)
Western Kentucky @ Ohio (ESPN3)

8pm
TCU @ Arkansas (SECN+)

8:30pm
Pepperdine @ Wyoming (Mountain West Digital Network)

9:30pm
Idaho @ Arizona (Arizona Live Stream)

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Will be courtside at the Arizona game. Along with a lot of fans, I hope. Heavily promoted.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Ohio beat Western Kentucky, James Madison eliminated VA Tech and Cincinnati won against Butler. Wyoming and Arkansas both have leads in their games currently.

 

[Plebe]

Cincinnati, just as it did vs. Minnesota, came up with a big 4Q to beat Butler. This time Cincy ended the game on a 17-4 run. They advance to play the winner of Arkansas-TCU.

James Madison edged out its former coach and Virginia Tech, 70-66. They'll play Georgetown next.

Ohio beat Western Kentucky and will play Northwestern next.