With NCAA, WBIT on table, Arizona women's basketball to finally hear postseason fate after long wait

Nine days.

That’s a long time to wait to hear where you are playing in the postseason.

But ask just about anyone connected to the Arizona women’s basketball program — staff, coaches or even the players — and they are, in a word, excited.

Although the Wildcats haven’t played a game since March 7, there are still three more-than-likely possibilities for where the UA ends up this postseason as the program heads into Selection Sunday:

Possibility 1: Arizona (17-15) bypasses the “First Four” and is solidly in the NCAA Tournament field. The Wildcats would play on Friday or Saturday in the first round.

Possibility 2: Arizona makes the NCAA Tournament, but are in the range of an 11 seed and will need to take part in a “First Four” play-in game on Wednesday or Thursday. Win there, and then play in the first round either Friday or Saturday.

Possibility 3: The Wildcats, a bubble team in recent weeks, miss out on the 2024 NCAA Tournament, but end up in the new NCAA-sponsored WBIT (Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament). A bid there and Arizona most likely hosts a first-round matchup Thursday at McKale Center.

While that seems like a lot to handle, it won’t be long until the Wildcats find out where they fit. The NCAA Women’s Basketball Selection Show airs Sunday at 5 p.m. on ESPN.

If Arizona needs to keep listening for Option 3, the WBIT selection show follows at 6 p.m. on NCAA.com.

Lauren Flaum, the UA program’s director of operations, is doing the heavy lifting for wherever the Wildcats end up. While she admitted there is a little anxiety, she quickly added: “I think in this business if you’re getting on a plane sometime in March, you’re playing a game. You can’t ask for anything more.”

The Wildcats did finish barely over .500 at 17-15 overall, but there are a lot of pluses in their favor for making the NCAA Tournament.

The committee looks at a number of criteria including being competitive in losses, early performance vs. late performance, head-to-head, NET ranking, observable component, significant wins and strength of schedule.

UA played one of the toughest schedules in the nation. During its nonconference slate, the UA faced a number of teams either ranked at the time they played, or that became ranked; those included Ole Miss, Texas, UNLV and Gonzaga. Combine that with playing in the Pac-12 and facing ranked teams week in and week out — especially down the stretch playing No. 4 Stanford, as well as No. 3 USC and No. 6 UCLA — twice apiece, and Arizona’s overall strength of schedule (SOS) is No. 2 in the nation.

Entering this weekend, all of the Pac-12’s dozen teams sit in the top 18 nationally in SOS; that includes UCLA at No. 1, USC No. 3, Oregon fourth, Utah fifth, Colorado sixth, ASU eighth, Oregon State ninth, Cal 10th, Washington State 13th, Stanford 15th and Washington 18th.

The Wildcats have two wins over ranked teams: Utah and Stanford. They played USC down to the wire twice in the last week. They lost two games to a then-ranked No. 5 Colorado and a soon-to-be-ranked Oregon State by one possession each.

The loss to Oregon by two points was arguably Arizona’s worst loss of the conference season, as the Ducks finished last in the Pac-12.

Arizona’s overall NET ranking is 34 — a number that is better than that of a number of other teams considered to be among the last at-large bids, according to ESPN and The Athletic.

Marquette at No. 40 while Mississippi State has a 75 SOS and 47 NET, Texas A&M has a 48 SOS and 41 NET; Vanderbilt has a 73 SOS and 57 NET and Miami has a 56 SOS and 51 NET.

The observable component could be the Wildcats’ never-give-up-mentality, which was evident in both USC games, plus three other overtime games (Colorado, Utah and UW).

Preparing for WBIT

Over the last nine days, while the Wildcats had a few days off, there has been no down time for Flaum.

Flaum often likes to defer credit to colleagues in the UA athletic department involved in facilities, events, ticketing, parking and security; but in preparing for Option 3 — hosting during the WBIT — she is the one who has been leading the charge to finish the bid and getting everything across the finish line.

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The next top 32 teams will play in the WBIT.

Folks in Tucson have certainly heard of the WNIT, but how did this new tournament come about?

Coming out of the 2021 NCAA Tournament where the organization was exposed for not providing equal workout facilities and gifts to women, compared to those competing in the men’s tournament, an outside firm provided recommendations on how to bridge that gap. One of these options was providing an NCAA-run secondary tournament, similar to how the NCAA operates the men’s NIT.

This new women’s tournament is now in competition with the WNIT — which has been run by an independent organization outside the NCAA for more than 20 years.

The first three rounds of the WBIT will be at host campus sites. The semifinals and finals will be held at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

The WBIT ‘bids’ to host or rather “budget” as Flaum said, were due last week.

Arizona has been through this drill before many times in the past 10 years. The UA hosted the first two rounds of the women’s NCAA Tournament in 2022, as well as the entire Wildcat run through the WNIT in 2019. Last year, too, Arizona hosted the Pac-12 softball tournament

Hosting the WBIT is slightly different from when Arizona hosted the WNIT just five years ago. In that case, UA had to pay to host games and split the proceeds with the WNIT.

This time around, most of the costs of hosting the tournament will fall on the NCAA. Flaum said that the NCAA will keep the ticket sales, but the schools keep the money made from everything around that, like concessions.

Once the Wildcats find out what tournament they land in, it will trigger a number of next steps. For example, if it’s the WBIT, season ticket holders will get emails about how and when to buy tickets and other plans will be set in motion.

Flaum understands what it takes to put on a tournament as she has experience helping with the play-in games when she was the director of operations for Toledo’s women’s basketball team.

“This is a scaled down model of the NCAA Tournament,” Flaum said. “Instead of hosting two games a day and having four teams, there is just going to be the home team and a visiting team.

“They are running it very similar to the NCAA Tournament as far as the student-athlete experience is concerned. There will be gifts and the little perks that you get for being a part of that tournament. They’re making this tournament feel special in that way, as well.”

Planning for NCAA travel

While Flaum has had a hand in the planning of hosting a possible WBIT, she still has responsibilities for her day job. That means getting prepared for traveling to play in the NCAAs.

That’s where it gets a little tricky. Flaum has no idea where the Wildcats will be playing this week.

“This is the fun part of the job,” she said. “Fingers crossed; I don’t think we’re hoping — I think we deserve to be in the NCAA Tournament.”

For the big dance, the NCAA has charters and hotels ready to go, but Flaum is working on the little details once she knows where they are going.

“In this situation, I am preparing that we could literally be getting on a plane and leaving at 8 a.m. on Monday morning,” Flaum said.

She’s got the manifest and the rooming lists (for the team, the band, cheer squad) and they will be submitted to the company the NCAA is working with for travel. She also prepared the packing list for the team well ahead of time — they wear the same sweats, shoes and T-shirts when traveling.

On Sunday night, she will communicate with everyone, including the hotel to set up team meals.

“In March a lot of this being flexible and being ready for changes to be made,” Flaum said. “You can control what you can control; you get done what you can get done. My biggest thing will just be getting everyone that needs to be there what they need on the plane packed and ready to go. The details will fill in as we go along. And if we don’t leave till Tuesday, or Wednesday or whatever day I will have all the details done by then.”