The Oregon women’s basketball team learns its postseason fate tonight when the NCAA Tournament and Women’s National Invitational Tournament Fields are announced.
The NCAA Tournament selections will be announced Monday on ESPN at 5 p.m. and WNIT selections will be listed later at http://www.womensnit.com.
Oregon won’t be selected to the NCAA Tournament, but what teams do go will have an effect on the teams chosen for the WNIT’s field of 48 teams. In Sunday night’s “Bracketology” by Charlie Creme on ESPN.com, there are four Pacific-10 Conference teams predicted to be NCAA Tournament bound, including Stanford, Arizona State, California and Washington. USC, serving as a host site for the first two rounds, is considered a bubble team and is not listed in the projections.
USC, which is fifth in the Pac-10, would be automatically selected for the WNIT under a rule that has the next team in the standings not picked for the NCAA Tournament chosen for the WNIT, provided teams have a .500 overall record, which USC does at 17-13.
Oregon has a strong case for postseason play with a 16-13 overall record and a sixth-place finish in the Pac-10 at 8-10. Oregon submitted a bid to host at McArthur Court. It would give Oregon’s five seniors another chance to earn a win at McArthur Court after losing 74-56 to Stanford on Senior Night on Feb. 17.
– Jeffrey Dransfeldt