CHARLESTON, Ill. – Eastern Illinois women’s basketball has been selected as the Ohio Valley Conference representative to open the upcoming 2009-10 campaign in the Preseason Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT).
The Panthers are guaranteed of three Preseason WNIT games and will play at Ohio State on Nov. 13 in the first round. The winner advances to play the victor of the Bowling Green-Chicago State opening-round matchup.
The 2009 Preseason WNIT is a three-game guarantee format involving 16 teams from 16 different conferences that were included by invitation-only. All games are hosted by participating schools. The initial round of the event will involve eight sites hosted by participating institutions.
This marks EIU’s first appearance in the Preseason WNIT. The season-opening game in Columbus, Ohio, will also be the first all-time meeting between the Panthers and Ohio State. The Buckeyes last participated in the Preseason WNIT in 2004, advancing to the championship game before losing to Notre Dame.
Ohio State (29-6 in 2009) won the Big Ten regular-season and tournament titles last season before losing in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament to Stanford.
“We’re so excited to be a part of the Preseason WNIT,” EIU head coach
Brady Sallee said. “It speaks volumes about where our program is, and where it has come from. We look forward to playing against the best of the best. We want to be a program that’s strong enough to compete at this level. We’re going to throw our six freshmen in the fire, similar to our games against USC and Hawaii to open the 2006 season.”
The other 12 participating universities includes: New Mexico, Northern Colorado, Florida Gulf Coast, UTEP, Georgia Tech, Winthrop, Oklahoma State, Arkansas-Little Rock, Marist, North Carolina A&T, West Virginia and Towson.
Eastern finished its 2008-09 season with a 24-9 overall record, reaching the OVC Tournament title game for the second year in a row. The Panthers’ 24 overall victories were the most of any team in the country not invited to a national postseason tournament. Murray State earned the league’s automatic bid to the Postseason WNIT after winning the regular-season title. Austin Peay represented the league at the NCAA Tournament after beating three higher-seeded opponents on its way to winning the OVC Tournament.
The eight opening-round winners will continue on in traditional bracket play, with half of the teams hosting the other half in separate host sites. The winning teams will continue on, with separate host sites throughout the semifinals and championship.
The eight teams who lose their opening-round 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. The host site will be announced after the completion of all opening-round games. Each team in this consolation round will play two games for a total of three in the tournament.
Of the four quarterfinal teams that lose in second round, 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 2009 event will start the first Friday of the regular season (Nov. 13). Round two will be targeted for the ensuing Sunday or Monday (Nov. 15/16), with the semifinals occurring the next Wednesday or Thursday (Nov. 18/19). The tournament championship will be scheduled for the second Sunday of the regular season (Nov. 22), nine days after the tournament opens. The consolation bracket quads will be played on or around the second Friday and Saturday of the season (Nov. 20-21), seven days following the first round. Round two losers will play on or around the second Friday or Saturday (Nov. 20/21) of the season as well, at separate sites.
Samford was the last OVC team, in 2007-08, to play in the Preseason WNIT. All of Samford’s athletic programs moved to the Southern Conference at the end of that school year. The Bulldogs dropped their first game of the Preseason WNIT at fifth-ranked LSU and were selected to host a consolation pod at their then brand new Pete Hanna Center.
Other OVC schools to participate in the Preseason WNIT includes: Southeast Missouri State (2003), Eastern Kentucky (2001), Tennessee Tech (1997) and Austin Peay (1996).
In other news, the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association has announced the dates for the annual Pink Zone breast cancer fundraising and awareness efforts. Feb. 12-21, 2010 has been designated as the dates when teams are encouraged to host Pink Zone games. The Panthers are slated to play Eastern Kentucky (Feb. 13) at Lantz Arena during that span.
The complete EIU women’s basketball schedules will be released later this summer.