Arkansas women’s basketball selected for inaugural WBIT

FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas women’s basketball team is one of 32 teams selected to play in the Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament. Arkansas, an at-large selection, will play at No. 3 seed Tulsa for the first round. That opening round game is set for Thursday, March 21. Tipoff time is TBD at the Donald W. Reynolds Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Arkansas’ WBIT bid marks its sixth straight postseason qualification in the Mike Neighbors’ era, 27th overall in school history. The Hogs are 18-14 this season and searching for back-to-back 20-win seasons. The Hogs are coming off the 2023 season having qualified for the WNIT Great 8, defeating Louisiana Tech (W, 69-47), SFA (W, 60-30) and Texas Tech (W, 71-66) all at Bud Walton Arena before dropping to Kansas (L, 78-64) on the road.
Tulsa is coming off winning the American Athletic Conference regular season title and a 23-9 record, 13-5 in the league. The Golden Hurricane are led by Temira Poindexter and Delanie Crawford who average 21.1 and 19.1 points per game, respectively. Poindexter was named the American Conference Player of the Year and Crawford was tabbed the league’s Most Improved Player.
Arkansas and Tulsa have a rich history, with Thursday’s matchup marking the 28th of the all-time series, in which the Hogs have the 24-3 edge. The Hogs have a five-game winning streak of the Golden Hurricane, with the last matchup resulting in a 79-70 win in Fayetteville last season.

The winner of Thursday night’s game will take on the winner of No. 2 seed Washington vs. Georgetown in the second round on Sunday, March 24.
The first round of the WBIT is set for Thursday with the second round continuing on Sunday, March 24. The quarterfinals are set to take place on campus sits on Thursday, March 28. The last four teams standing will head to Indianapolis, in which the semifinals and championship game will take place on April 1 and April 3, respectively, at Butler’s historic Hinkle Fieldhouse.
ESPN serves as the television broadcast partner for all WBIT games with ESPN+ serving as the exclusive home for all preliminary contests. The semifinals will be broadcast on EPNU on April 1 at 1:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. CT, and the championship will air on ESPN2 on April 3 at 6 p.m. CT.
The NCAA created the WBIT to begin this postseason in 2024, which features a 32-team postseason tournament, owned and funded by the NCAA. With the addition of the WBIT, 100 postseason NCAA-funded opportunities are available for DI women’s basketball teams.