Someone asked me about Arizona’s 2019 WNIT title yesterday, and I am ashamed to say I don’t remember it at all. Please, ask again this offseason so we can dig more into this glory and give Arizona their due. This is a grave oversight in my personal NIT education.
While we’re here, though, let’s check in on the WNIT.
Quarterfinal matchups are today and tomorrow, the “Fab 4” (God I love that) is Tuesday and/or Wednesday, and the championship is Friday on CBSSN. Embarrassingly, I’m not sure if the Fab 4 and championship are on campus sites or not, but I believe they are. I believe this was part of Arizona’s 2019 glory. Please forgive me if I’ve erred.
Today, we’ve got Arkansas playing Kansas on ESPN+ at 3:00 PM EDT (what a great regional matchup), Harvard playing Columbia at 4:00 PM EDT (holy shit that is good, conference rivalry), and Oregon playing Washington at 6:00 PM EDT (another rivalry, good God is God good). Tomorrow, Bowling Green plays Florida at 6:00 PM EDT on ESPN3 to close it out. Awesome matchups. Great tournament.
Importantly, this could be the last WNIT in its current form, with the NCAA talking last summer about starting an NIT equivalent of its own for the women’s game (which is a great endorsement of where the NIT is at, and could create a Super Final Four that would be electric and packed). We haven’t seen anything about it for a few months, but it’s on the radar. Tough spot for the current WNIT, which does admirable work, but the NCAA will do what the NCAA will do, and usually, that’s force teams to stop playing in tournaments it doesn’t want them playing in until there’s an antitrust suit that gets settled out of court with them buying said tournaments.
Great NIT Sunday. Plenty of basketball to be watched.
