Wisconsin Women’s Basketball Earns WNIT Bid; First Round Bye

While it isn’t the tournament they were hoping for at the beginning of the season, the Wisconsin Badgers women’s basketball team will be playing postseason basketball this year after accepting an invitation to the WNIT.

UW hasn’t played in any sort of postseason since the 2010-2011 season when they beat Butler in the first round of the WNIT but fell to Illinois State in a heartbreaker in Round 2.

Not done yet!!!

We’ll be playing in the 2024 WNIT with an at large bid!

Our opponent, location, and game time will be released tomorrow. Keep an eye out for more info 👀 pic.twitter.com/e9dZajjX9E

— Wisconsin Women’s Basketball (@BadgerWBB) March 18, 2024

The Badgers were given a first round bye and will play the winner of Illinois-Chicago at Southern Indiana (Thursday, Mar. 21, 7 p.m. CT), presumably at the Kohl Center but, as the WNIT website notes “teams with first-round byes are not guaranteed to play at home in Round 2.” The second round of the WNIT runs from March 23-26 and no date or time has been set for Wisconsin’s game.

This is the 26th year of the Postseason WNIT and, per their release, this year’s 48-team field “ reflects the depth and competitive excellence found throughout women’s college basketball and draws from Power 5 notables and ascending mid-major conferences.” The Big Ten has three teams in the tournament:

• Wisconsin Badgers, duh
• Minnesota Golden Gophers
• Purdue Boilermakers

The other two Big Ten teams received byes as well and also have to wait to see who they’ll play. The Gophers get the winner of Cal Poly at Pacific and the Boilermakers will face off against the winner of Bowling Green at Butler.

Here’s the schedule for the tournament:

Round 1 – March 20-22, 2024
Round 2 – March 23-26, 2024
Round 3 – March 27-29, 2024
Quarterfinals – March 30-April 1, 2024
Semifinals – April 2-3, 2024

The 2024 Postseason WNIT will again have its championship game broadcast on CBS Sports Network, with tipoff set for Saturday, April 6, at 2 p.m. CT.  We will have much more coverage of Wisconsin’s run in the WNIT right here on Badger Notes.

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