WNIT Bracket
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Three more BIG EAST teams learned their seasons would continue late Monday night as the WNIT announced its 32-team postseason bracket. Creighton, DePaul and Villanova received bids and will tipoff national postseason play on March 19. The Bluejays and Blue Demons are in the Rokcford Region, while the Wildcats were slotted in the Charlotte Region. Creighton will face Bowling Green at 3 p.m. ET, DePaul will tipoff with Saint Louis at 6 p.m., and Villanova will meet UMass at 8 p.m. There is no formal seeding for teams in the WNIT field.
This year's event will start with eight teams each at four regional sites — Charlotte, N.C.; Fort Worth, Tex.; Memphis, Tenn.; and Rockford, Ill. First-round play begins Friday, March 19; Round 2 is March 20, and Round 3 is March 22. The four regional champions will advance to the Memphis site, with the semifinals tipping off March 26 and the championship game set for March 28. All games will be available via streaming through FloHoops. Every team will get at least two games in this year's event.
This marks the Bluejays' 13th appearance in the WNIT Postseason Tournament, including the WNIT Championship in 2004. Creighton's last appearance in the WNIT came in 2016. Prior to this season, the Bluejays played in the WNIT in: 1987, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015 and 2016. Entering the BIG EAST Tournament as the No. 6 seed with a 7-10 mark on March 4, the Bluejays defeated Georgetown (56-42 on March 5) and No. 3 Seton Hall (83-76 on March 6). Creighton's run came to a close with a 64-59 loss to No. 2 Marquette on March 7, but the Bluejays had the ball in the final minute down just 61-59.
This will be the fifth time a Doug Bruno-coached DePaul team will compete in the Postseason WNIT. The Blue Demons lost in the consolation round in 1989, advanced to the second round in 2000 and 2001 and fell in the first round in 2002. DePaul's history with the WNIT began in 1982 when coach Ron Feiereisel took his team to what originated as the National Women's Invitational Tournament (NWIT) which ran from 1969-1996. Current sponsor Triple Crown Sports resurrected the postseason event as the WNIT in 1998. The Blue Demons under coach Jim Izard competed in the 1987 NWIT followed by winning three-straight games en route to the 1988 title.
Villanova will be making its 18th postseason appearance in the last 21 years. The stretch includes six berths in the NCAA Tournament and 12 WNIT appearances. In its previous 11 trips to the WNIT, Villanova has tallied a 16-11 record. The Wildcats enter postseason play with a 15-6 overall record. The Wildcats went 9-5 in Big East play during the regular season which was good enough for fifth place in the final league standings. In the Big East Tournament, Villanova defeated DePaul in the quarterfinals, before falling to No. 1 Connecticut in the semifinal round.
The Postseason Women's National Invitation Tournament began in 1998 with 16 teams playing for a postseason crown. The event has undergone four expansions throughout which its mission has remained the same: To give deserving teams a quality opportunity to play exciting games for a postseason title. Following the inaugural year, the field doubled to 32 teams and remained that way until 2006 when a renewed commitment was made to schools. The WNIT expanded to a 40-team field to give spots to teams that won their regular-season conference title but did not win their conference tournament and therefore were excluded from the NCAA Tournament. The WNIT furthered that commitment to conferences in 2007, when it expanded to 48 teams and awarded an automatic berth to each conference. The number of at-large berths remained at 17 until 2010, when the WNIT felt that the level of women's basketball warranted an expansion to the 64-team field.