At Least Two More Games! Women's Basketball Receives Automatic Bid for WNIT

Photo taken by Madyson Chambers

On Monday evening, the Women's Basketball team learned who they would face in the first round of the Woman's National Invitational Tournament. 10 days ago on March 5th, Samford became the second team to learn that they had automatically qualified for the tournament as the WNIT awards automatic qualifications for teams that win the conference regular season and do not win their conference tournament.

The tournament pulled a trick on all of us eagerly waiting for the bracket to be released. Instead of doing what CBS does for their Selection Sunday show where the teams are announced as the bracket is filled out, the WNIT put out a press release saying who all had qualified, but holding off from releasing the bracket... for 2 more hours.

After countless times of refreshing their twitter page, the WNIT finally released the full bracket with the Samford Bulldogs being the designated away team against the Rebels of Ole Miss (11-11) in the Memphis Regional.

Woah! Check out the old uniforms!

I don't just like this pairing, I LOVE it. It gives us a chance to defeat an SEC opponent on a neutral floor. Plus, the only time that Samford has advanced to the second round of a postseason in its entire history was back in 2010 when the Bulldogs hosted Ole Miss in the first year of the Pete Hanna Center where the Bulldogs stunned the Rebels with a 56-55 win.

This year's WNIT has a cool quirk to it as well: each team is guaranteed at least 2 games. Even if you lose your first game, you enter a single-elimination consolation bracket against the teams of your regional.

As you can see in the bracket above, a team has to win 5 straight to be named WNIT Champions. However, the losers of the first round of each region has the chance to play for the region's consolation bracket champion. For example, let's say that Ole Miss upsets our beloved Bulldogs. Samford will then play the loser of Illinois State/Tulane. If the Bulldogs lose, that's it. If the Bulldogs win, they then play on Monday at 4pm Central against the top half "best loser" of the Memphis Region. Now, if a team wins round one but then falls in the next round, Go to Offseason, do not pass Go, do not collect $200. You've played your minimum 2 games, now GIT.

On just a pure headlines note, I am sincerely hoping for Samford and Louisiana Lafayette meet in either the regional finals or the consolation finals. As many may know, SoCon POTY Andrea Cournoyer transferred from UoLL to Samford. And for her sake, I hope Cournoyer hangs 50 on the Ragin' Cajuns just to put an exclamation point on her transfer.

What the Players had to say

At the past two Samford Soccer games, I was able to talk with Senior Guards Raven Omar and Katie Allen and Junior Guard Andrea Cournoyer and ask them what playing in this tournament means to them and to the team.

Raven Omar told me after Friday's game, "Knowing that we have two games will allow us to have a lot of fun. We feel confident that we can win the regional, or at the very least, win the consolation bracket."

Katie Allen mirrored these comments during Sunday's blowout, adding, "Obviously we would have wanted to play in the NCAA Tournament, but the WNIT is a great tournament." On what the knowledge of having 2 games guaranteed means to the team, Allen responded, "It'll allow us to end the season how we want and not have our season end on that disappointing loss to ETSU."

Junior Andrea Cournoyer said of the WNIT that, "Being able to play at least 2 more games is really special. It's the only thing I'm focusing on right now; I'll think about the 2021-22 season later."

Samford has been back in the lab since last week as they prepare for the tournament, taking only a few days off after their upset two Thursdays ago. The Bulldogs are currently scheduled to tip off against the Rebels this Friday at 5pm Central, but that might be pushed back if previous games go long. Games will only be able to be viewed via Flohoops (warning, it's a steep $29.99/month) or in person, but don't worry, we'll have excellent coverage after each game like always.

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