UW women's basketball: Badgers open WNIT at home Saturday
Seniors Jolene Anderson, Janese Banks and Danielle Ward will get a chance to cap off their collegiate basketball careers in the postseason after all.
The University of Wisconsin women's basketball team will make its second consecutive appearance in the Women's National Invitation Tournament and will open play Saturday at 7 p.m. at the UW Field House.
The Badgers (16-13), who received an at-large bid and first-round bye, will host the winner of Wednesday's game between American University (19-12) and Villanova (15-15).
The UW administration submitted a proposal to host games through all rounds in the WNIT, which could mean as many as five home games through the April 5 championship. Due to scheduling conflicts at the Kohl Center, any home games that are awarded will be played at the Field House. The time and location of each game will be determined round-by-round, with the high bidder prevailing.
"The opportunity to play more basketball and be in Madison at an historic venue, we're going to take this as a very positive incentive," fifth-year coach Lisa Stone said in an interview Tuesday morning. "It's not a different experience (as far as the venue is concerned), it's an exciting experience to embrace. We're entering this tournament with the intent of winning it."
This is the fourth WNIT berth in program history for UW, which lost at Wyoming in the 2007 championship, won the 2000 title and was runner-up in 1999. Wisconsin has compiled a 13-2 record in the WNIT, including a 13-0 mark on its home court.
The Badgers suffered an early exit at the Big Ten tournament with a 15-point, first-round loss to Illinois, and Stone said the team is eager to show that their success in the latter part of the season was not a fluke.
"It's a great way to send our seniors out with success and happiness because, certainly, our early exit in the Big Ten tournament is not what we wanted," Stone said of the Badgers, who started the Big Ten season with a 1-6 mark and won eight of their last 11 regular-season games. "The opportunity to play again gives us an opportunity to play better basketball here during this tournament."
Nine Big Ten teams received postseason bids. Four of them — Ohio State, Iowa, Minnesota and Purdue — will compete in the NCAA tournament. The Big Ten placed five teams in the WNIT, more than any other conference. Michigan State received the league's automatic bid to the 48-team field and will be joined by UW, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. Penn State and Northwestern are the only two league squads that did not get a postseason nod.
Meanwhile, the state of Wisconsin will be well-represented in the WNIT as Marquette earned the automatic bid for the Big East Conference and UW-Green Bay received the Horizon League's automatic bid.
Other notables in the tournament, which begins Wednesday and concludes with an April 5 title game, include North Carolina State and Florida.
