Cornhusker State News

The Nebraska women's basketball team earned its third consecutive postseason berth on Sunday night, when the Huskers were selected to play in the Women's National Invitational Tournament.

The Huskers (16-14) claimed the Big Ten Conference's automatic bid into the 64-team field after finishing with an 8-10 league mark. Nebraska, which closed the season at No. 43 in the NCAA NET rankings, is hopeful to host a first-round game in the 64-team field, which begins with first-round play March 15-17. The full bracket for the field will be announced on Monday.

Second-round games at host sites will be played March 18-21, before the Super 16 contests are held at host sites March 22-24. The WNIT Great Eight will be played at host institutions March 25-27, before the semifinals March 28-29. The WNIT Championship Game will be played at a host institution on Saturday, April 1 at 4:30 p.m. (CT) in a game televised by CBS Sports Network.

"We are grateful for the opportunity to continue to compete together and represent Nebraska and the Big Ten Conference in the WNIT," Nebraska Coach Amy Williams said. "Playing at this time of year is a privilege, and we intend to make the most of it."

The Huskers faced the toughest schedule in school history in 2022-23, playing a school-record 12 games against Associated Press Top 25 teams at game time, including six games against teams currently ranked in the top six of the AP Poll (No. 2 Iowa-2; No. 3 Indiana-1; No. 4 Virginia Tech-1; No. 6 Maryland-2) – which all earned top-two seeds in the 2023 NCAA Tournament.

The Big Red split with Maryland, notching a 90-67 win at College Park (Dec. 4), which at the time marked the largest margin of victory over an AP Top 25 team on the road in school history. The Huskers also took Indiana to overtime in Bloomington (Jan. 1), before falling to Iowa by just four points at Carver-Hawkeye Arena (Jan. 28).

Most recently, the Huskers ran to a 90-57 victory at then-No. 25 Illinois in Champaign (Feb. 22), which became the largest margin of victory over an AP Top 25 team on the road in NU history. Earlier this season, the Big Red added a triple-overtime win over then-No. 20 and unbeaten Kansas (Dec. 21).

Overall, Nebraska played 15 of its 30 games this season against NCAA Tournament qualifiers (Iowa-2, Maryland-2, Michigan-2, Illinois-2, Indiana, Ohio State, Virginia Tech, Creighton, Mississippi State, Purdue and Drake), while adding wins against WNIT automatic qualifiers Kansas, Wyoming and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

The 64-team field includes 32 automatic berths – one from each of the nation's Division I conferences – and 32 at-large selections. Automatic berths were offered to the highest-finishing team not selected for the NCAA Tournament in each conference's final regular-season standings.

The Huskers made their last trip to the Postseason WNIT in 2021, running to a 72-46 win over UT Martin in Colliersville, Tenn. (March 19), before falling to Colorado (75-71, March 20). The 2021 WNIT was modified due to COVID restrictions and played at neutral sites. The tournament returned to its traditional home campus sites in 2022.

Nebraska made its 15th all-time NCAA Tournament appearance in 2022, dropping a first-round game to Gonzaga (68-55, March 18) in Louisville, Ky. The Big Red will be making its seventh Postseason WNIT appearance since the tournament began in 1998. The Huskers also appeared in the NWIT in 1992. The Huskers will be making their 19th postseason tournament appearance in the last 25 years. 

Original source can be found here.