Three Big 12 Teams Invited to Women’s Postseason NIT
Three Big 12 women’s basketball teams have been invited to play in the Women’s Postseason NIT, with selections announced on Sunday.
Kansas (19-11), Texas Tech (18-14) and Kansas State (17-16) all accepted invitations to the 64-team field. The game matchups will be announced on Monday.
Kansas was a bubble team for the NCAA Tournament that likely saw its chances to play in March Madness end after a first-round Big 12 Tournament loss to No. 10 seed TCU.
Kansas likely lost that NCAA Tournament bid to West Virginia (19-11), a team that was also on the bubble. The Mountaineers were one of six Big 12 teams to make the NCAA Tournament field.
Texas Tech won only six league games and lost in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament to Kansas State. But, the Lady Raiders did enough in non-conference to earn a WNIT invitation.
Kansas State probably secured an invitation after beating the Lady Raiders on Thursday to stay above .500 for the season.
The 64-team event begins with first-round matchups between March 15-17 and second-round matchups between March 18-21.
The so-called Super 16 will be played between March 22-24, with the Great Eight to be played between March 25-27.
The semifinals will be March 28-29 and the championship game will be April 1.
The complete field is below.
Automatic Qualifiers: Arkansas (21-12), *Boston (24-8), Bowling Green (27-6), *Columbia (23-5), *Fairleigh Dickinson (24-7),*Green Bay (27-5), High Point (17-14), *Illinois State (24-8), \*Jackson State (21-9), Kansas (19-11), Liberty (24-8), *Little Rock (21-10), Memphis (20-10), Morgan State (17-11), Nebraska (16-14), Niagara (18-12), North Dakota State (18-11), *Northern Arizona (21-13), San Diego (17-13), Seton Hall (18-14), *Stephen F. Austin (26-6), Syracuse (18-12), *Texas A&M Corpus Christi (19-11), Texas State (23-9), *Towson (21-11), *UAlbany (22-11), *UC-Irvine (24-6), *UMass (26-6), Washington (15-14), Western Kentucky (19-13), *Wofford (22-9), Wyoming (22-10).
At Large (32): Auburn (15-14), Ball State (25-8), *Belmont (23-11), BYU (16-16), Clemson (17-15), Colorado State (20-11), Drexel (21-9), Florida (16-14), Fordham (18-12), Harvard (17-11), Kansas State (17-16), Kent State (21-10), Long Beach State (23-9), Louisiana Tech (19-12), Missouri (17-13), Missouri State (20-11), New Mexico (20-12), Northern Iowa (22-9), Oregon (17-14), Penn (17-11), *Rhode Island (24-6), Rice (22-8), Richmond (20-10), Saint Joseph’s (20-10), San Diego State (23-10), San Francisco (19-12), SMU (16-12), Texas Tech (18-14), Tulane (18-13), UTEP (20-11), Wake Forest (16-16), Wichita State (18-14)
* – regular-season champion or co-champion; each conference has an automatic qualifier
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard
