This will be the first time the Lady Bears' program will participate in the preseason tournament. Morgan State is also the only Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) in this year's field.
This will be the 25th edition of the Preseason WNIT; the November event features a three-game guarantee for all teams, with first-round matchup and the bracket to be announced later this spring. All games are hosted by participating schools, with the championship game televised on CBS Sports Network.
In 2011, Morgan State made history when it advanced to the WNIT Postseason Tournament, where it faced host Virginia in the first round. It was the program's first and is still the only Division I postseason appearance in school history.
"The preseason WNIT is always prestigious in the fact that you will get tested very early against the teams your university tends to play," said Morgan State head coach Ed Davis. "And it kind of tests where you are in terms of that level of competition. We're going to do our best to compete. We will be a totally different team with the graduation of all the seniors, but hopefully we can meet the challenge."
This year's 16-team field represents 15 conferences with both Nicholls and Stephen F. Austin playing in the Southland Conference.
The field features 10 teams that won 19-plus games, nine teams that advanced to postseason play and a national champion during the 2017-18 season.
Three schools (Marquette, Miami, Nicholls) reached the NCAA Tournament, five (Delaware, New Mexico, Northern Iowa, Stephen F. Austin, Texas State) advanced to the WNIT, while Yale captured the Women's Basketball Invitational (WBI) title, becoming the first Ivy League team to win a national postseason women's basketball tournament.
"I've been fortunate enough to take part in the [Preseason] WNIT before and had the luxury of beating Princeton, who was ranked at the time. It gives you an opportunity to go after some good teams," said Davis on the caliber of teams in the field. "Hopefully this experience can carry over with the young kids into the rest of the non-conference season and definitely into the conference season."
Since its creation in 1994, as a preseason counterpart to the then National Women's Invitational Tournament the MEAC has been represented six previous times. Morgan State becomes the fifth MEAC school to be invited, joining two-time participants, Hampton (2005, 2010) and North Carolina A&T (2009, 2013), along with Delaware State (2007) and Howard (2011).
In 2005 Hampton became the first MEAC team to play in the event. The 2007 tournament shifted from single elimination to a three-game event with Delaware State representing the conference.
Davis recalls that Delaware State team all too well, as he was the head coach then. His Hornets would play three very competitive contests, falling to State rival the University of Delaware by seven in the opener, before losing to East Tennessee State in overtime by three points in Round 1 of the Consolation. Delaware State's second consolation game would be one to remember, as the Hornets would defeat a ranked Princeton team, 63-62 in overtime.
"For us, we thought we had a great shot to win two games. For the kids to even win against that caliber of team, it was just a big jolt and big boost for the program, said Davis whose Delaware State squad became the first MEAC team to win a game in the Preseason WNIT. "I thought we had a shot at East Tennessee State. We lost in overtime and then came back and beat a high ranked Princeton team.
"All three of those teams ended up going to the NCAA Tournament that particular year and we ended up going too. It kind of gave us a luck charm that we ended up in the NCAA against those types of teams that we played well against in the WNIT."
Davis would guide Delaware State to the program's first MEAC Tournament title and a trip to the NCAA Tournament that season. The Hornets would trail the second-seeded and 13th ranked Vanderbilt Commodores by four points (28-24) at the half and was down three points late in the game, before eventually falling in the first round.
Davis believes that the experience the Hornets gained during the Preseason WNIT helped to prepare them for an always tough MEAC schedule as well as the NCAA Tournament. He hopes it will do the same for Morgan State.
"It just made us tougher and stronger and made this particular team at Delaware State hungrier to win the MEAC and to try to get to the NCAA," said Davis. "I would hope that it would do the same thing for this Morgan team."
2018 Preseason WNIT Participants
School: 2017-18 Record - Postseason Results
Auburn: 14-15, 5-11 SEC
Delaware: 19-13, 11-7 Colonial - WNIT 1st Round
Hartford: 19-13, 9-7 America East
Iowa State: 14-17, 7-11 Big 12
Marquette: 24-10, 15-3 Big East - NCAA 2nd Round
Miami: 21-11, 10-6 ACC - NCAA 1st Round
Montana State: 16-15, 9-9 Big Sky
Morgan State: 16-15, 8-8 MEAC
New Mexico: 25-11, 10-8 Mountain West - WNIT 3rd Round
Niagara: 13-18, 9-9 Metro Atlantic
Nicholls State: 19-14, 11-7 Southland - NCAA 1st Round
Northern Illinois: 15-15, 7-11 Mid-American
Northern Iowa: 19-14, 13-5 Missouri Valley - WNIT 1st Round
Stephen F Austin: 25-7, 16-2 Southland - WNIT 1st Round
Texas State: 23-10, 14-4 Sun Belt - WNIT 1st Round
Yale: 19-13, 8-6 Ivy - WBI Champions
About Morgan
Morgan State University, founded in 1867, is a Carnegie-classified doctoral research institution offering more than 100 academic programs leading to degrees from the baccalaureate to the doctorate. As Maryland's Preeminent Public Urban Research University, Morgan serves a multiethnic and multiracial student body and seeks to ensure that the doors of higher education are opened as wide as possible to as many as possible. For more information about Morgan State University, visit www.morgan.edu.
About The WNIT
The Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) is a women's college national basketball tournament with a preseason and postseason version played every year. It is operated in a similar fashion to the men's college National Invitation Tournament (NIT) and NIT Season Tip-Off. Unlike the NIT, the women's tournament is not run by the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA), but is an independent National Championship. Triple Crown Sports, a company based in Fort Collins, Coloradothat specializes in the promotion of amateur sporting events,[1] created the WNIT in 1994 as a preseason counterpart to the then-current National Women's Invitational Tournament (NWIT). After the NWIT folded in 1996, Triple Crown Sports resurrected the postseason version in 1998 under the NWIT name, but changed the following season to the current name.
About Triple Crown Sports
Based in Fort Collins, Colo., Triple Crown Sports has been producing college and youth events for more than 30 years. TCS runs both the preseason and postseason WNIT basketball events and produces the men's and women's Cancun Challenge tournaments in Novemeber at the Hard Rock Riviera Maya. Triple Crown is also powering "WNIT" concept events in D-! softball (NISC) and volleyball (NIVC), with those two events debuting in 2017. TCS youth fastpitch tournaments (including the 900-team Sparkler/Fireworks event) draw the nation's finest club programs and hundreds of college coaches attend TCS events for recruiting purposes.
Kevin C. Paige, MSU Athletic Communications
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