Tulane Women's Basketball to Open 2008-09 Season in WNIT
2008 PRESEASON WNIT BRACKET
July 7, 2008
NEW ORLEANS - The Tulane women's basketball team will begin the 2008-09 season in the Preseason Women's National Invitation Tournament, as the 16-team field was announced today. Tulane will play host to Illinois State on Friday, November 14, in the first round at Fogelman Arena. "This is an exciting way to start the season," head coach Lisa Stockton said. "It's a tremendously competitive field, and should be a great challenge for us. We open the season with two NCAA tournament teams from last season, so I'm glad we can start the tournament at home." Twelve of the 16 teams in the field advanced to the post-season last year, including eight NCAA tournament teams. Illinois State (26-7) fell in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last season to Oklahoma, which is also on the Preseason WNIT field. North Carolina, Xavier, Liberty, Robert Morris, Cleveland State and Arizona State also were NCAA participants last year. Indiana, Middle Tennessee State, Virginia Commonwealth and Western Carolina were in the post-season WNIT. The winner of the Tulane-Illinois State game will face the winner of Cleveland State at Arizona State, with the site to be determined. The other part of Tulane's bracket includes UC-Riverside, Oklahoma, Middle Tennessee State, and Lafayette. The other side of the bracket consists of UNC, Western Carolina, Liberty, VCU, Xavier, Robert Morris, Indiana and Ball State. Each member of the field is guaranteed at least three games, with the two finalists playing four games. The eight teams who lose their first games will be re-grouped into "Consolation bracket quads," which are two four-team pools. One team in each pool will be selected to host the other three teams. Each team will play two games for a total of three in the tournament in these consolation rounds. Of the four quarterfinal teams, two teams will be selected to host one of the other quarterfinal round losers in a single game at separate sites. This game provides the third game for each of these schools.
The rest of Tulane's 2008-09 schedule will be announced at a later date. The Green Wave finished last season at 16-14, but won four of their final six regular season Conference USA games. Tulane will return nine players from last season's squad, with three newcomers joining the active roster in 2008-09.
2008 PRESEASON WNIT FIRST ROUND GAMES Friday, Nov. 14, 2008 Saturday, Nov. 15, 2008 |
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