Women’s Basketball Set to Face TCU in First Ever WBIT

[cousin oliver]

DENTON, Texas – The UNT women’s basketball team received a berth into the inaugural Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament and will continue its historical season beginning Thursday, March 21 against TCU in Fort Worth.

It is the sixth postseason appearance in program history and first in the WBIT.

“This is an incredible opportunity for our university and our women’s basketball program to be one of the first 32 teams to play in the brand new WBIT,” head coach Jason Burton said. “It’s a huge accomplishment for this program. I’m incredibly proud of everything these young women have done and for them to be rewarded for their hard work this year.””

North Texas went 23-8 this season and 13-5 in American Athletic Conference play, earning its first conference title since 1986 with a share of the AAC regular season championship. UNT has set 11 school records so far this season, including single-season wins, regular season wins and total team points.

The Mean Green will meet TCU for the 24th time in series history in the first round of the tournament and first since 2003. A game time is still to be announced.

“We get an opportunity to go back to Fort Worth where we didn’t have our best performance and go up against a good TCU team,” Burton said. “We are excited that we get to play, and it should be a great atmosphere. We look forward to the challenge and the opportunity to play in the postseason.”

The Mean Green are one of 32 teams in the WBIT that also features Tulsa who earned an automatic berth into the event. The first three rounds will be played at host sites of the higher seeded teams, while semifinal and final games will be held at Butler University’s historic Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on April 1 and 3. All games of the WBIT will be broadcasted on the ESPN platforms. All games of the WBIT will be broadcasted on the ESPN platforms.

[UNTLifer]

https://meangreensports.com/news/2024/3/17/womens-basketball-womens-basketball-set-to-face-tcu-in-first-ever-wbit

[Matt from A700]

Here's the full bracket. We're the unofficial 6 seed in our quadrant. We could theoretically host Georgia Tech in the second round if they beat Mississippi State. Looks like George Mason is the only team we could host in the third round unless there were other venue conflicts.

[wardly]

On another note, Karen Aston, former UNT and Texas women's head basketball coach, finely has UTSA's program in good shape. Future games between our Eagles and the Roadrunners should be fun to watch.

[NT80]

On 3/18/2024 at 11:03 AM, UNTLifer said:

https://meangreensports.com/news/2024/3/17/womens-basketball-womens-basketball-set-to-face-tcu-in-first-ever-wbit

It will be interesting to see the women's mental state following their early exit from the AAC Tourney.  Coach Burton probably had to have some re-set conversations with a few players.

[Ross Hodgeson]

 

[Andrew]

Too many post season tournaments. I thought we were in the Women’s NIT….

[Matt from A700]

9-7 TCU at the first media timeout.

[UNTLifer]

1 hour ago, Andrew said:

Too many post season tournaments. I thought we were in the Women’s NIT….

Supposedly, this is a better tournament. 

[Matt from A700]

Nice run to go up 16-13 after one.

The Frogs have a mammoth who towers over Lampkin and her last name is Prince. She's got a jumper too, no way Purple Rain isn't her nickname, right?

Edited March 21 by Matt from A700

[Matt from A700]

Frogs have turned it on this quarter. We have turned it over. 29-20 midway through the second.

[Matt from A700]

Closed the gap a little. 31-25 at the break in favor of TCU. Hoping for some of our patented second half magic.

[GrandGreen]

With Kernel still in never-never land, NT is making a game of it.

Lampkin played a great first half.

By the way, this announcing team is horrible, give them a NT roster because they don't even announce who scores. 

[Matt from A700]

This is my first time at Schollmaier Arena. The rims look old like they belong in a church parish hall.

[Marty]

Giving TCU too many open shots.

[Matt from A700]

Down 15 going into the 4th. Prince has 3 fouls and we've been going at her but she's been avoiding the fourth.

[blurbeard]

Yes Prince is definitely elite!

[UNTLifer]

We need shooters.  TCU's starting five could all shoot and all ended up in double figures.  When our opponents can shut down Lampkin and Kernal inside, we have a tough time.  TCU's post, 6'7" Prince, was incredible.  Typically, and I don't mean this in a bad way, but a woman this size is not very coordinated.  Prince was incredible as was Connor that had an unbelievable shot.

Never the less, I really enjoyed following this team this year.  They never gave up, always hustled and played hard and obviously enjoyed playing together.  They have a lot to be proud of and will look back on this year as something special.

[NT80]

4 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

We need shooters.  TCU's starting five could all shoot and all ended up in double figures.  When our opponents can shut down Lampkin and Kernal inside, we have a tough time.  TCU's post, 6'7" Prince, was incredible.  Typically, and I don't mean this in a bad way, but a woman this size is not very coordinated.  Prince was incredible as was Connor that had an unbelievable shot.

Never the less, I really enjoyed following this team this year.  They never gave up, always hustled and played hard and obviously enjoyed playing together.  They have a lot to be proud of and will look back on this year as something special.

This.  We got outshot 34% to 53%, and we took 20 more shots from the floor than TCU.  If we just make 5 of those 20 we win. 

[outoftown]

A season of progress. No less, no more.

[Matt from A700]

On 3/21/2024 at 9:04 PM, UNTLifer said:

We need shooters.

100%. Our weakest point aside from all the turnovers.

We were finally getting consistent layups in the end once Prince had picked up her fourth foul and TCU let off the gas. But the difference in how much spacing the Frogs created and how open their close shots were compared to ours was staggering.

JB might also want to take a page from the men's book and put together a tougher nonconference schedule. It's nice to pad the win totals, but we failed in the big games (TAMU, TCU, conference tourney vs. Rice) and lot many of the games that came down to clutch time.