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| 2018 Bracket |
The bracket announcement follows last month's announcement by Triple Crown Sports of the 16-team field.
Hartford will be making its third appearance in the event, while 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.
A win by the Lady Bears and they would advance to a Round 2 contest on Nov. 11 against the winner between Stephen F. Austin and Miami.
Should Morgan State drop the opener to Hartford, it would fall into the consolation bracket where it would play two more games at a single site to be determined following the Round One contests.
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.
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, who was the head coach of that 2007 Delaware State team, would guide the Hornets to 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, becoming the first MEAC team to win a game in the Preseason WNIT.
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, Colorado that 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.
MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS
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