Pilots' postseason chances

The women have almost certainly made it to post season play. They could, of course, win the conference. They already showed that Gonzaga isn't as much a lock as some think, and the Zags also lost to Pepperdine Saturday. So UP is in pretty good position to make a strong run at the conference title and get the automatic bid.

Their RPI is hovering just around 100, so that probably won't rise enough for an at large NCAA bid, BUT-- there's a new selection method in the WNIT this year.
According to the WNIT site.:

How the teams are selected
The 48-team tournament field consists of 31 automatic berths and 17 at-large selections. An automatic bid is offered to each conference to the team that finished highest during the regular season and did not receive a bid to the NCAA Tournament. The WNIT recognizes the tiebreakers used by each conference in their tournament seeding.

Tonight's game was huge. They are in second place now two games up on third place LMU and a game up on Pepperdine with two games to go, and they hold the first tiebreaker on LMU.

They need to win against either San Diego or Santa Clara at home next week, or Pepperdine needs to lose a game and they are
in the NIT at least!.
There are still tiebreakers that are unsettled if that doesn't happen.

WAY to go PILOTS!

I like that rule. How many times does a team in a small conference, like the Patriot league or something, have a great regular season and then slip up in their conference tourney and have no chance of postseason play? Too often. Really, do they need the 13th best Big East team or the 1st/2nd in EVERY OTHER conference?

Congrats ladies! It is nice to see the women's team going back to the postseason.

Second doesn't ensure postseason play... If UP finishes second and somebody besides Gonzaga wins the WCC Tourney, Gonzaga would get the WNIT bid. Nonetheless, second place puts the Pilots in good position.

Well, yeah, if Gonzaga loses the next two games and losses in the tournament semi's to boot, I suppose they could drop out of tournament bid contention. But right now, Gonzaga has an RPI of 38. Barring total collapse, they are going to the dance whether they come in 1st, 2nd, or third.

That still leaves us with the WNIT bid and a chance for the conference NCAA bid if we win tonight.

It's not mathematical certainty, but close enough we can put the T-shirts out for bid.

Purplegeezer wrote:But right now, Gonzaga has an RPI of 38. Barring total collapse, they are going to the dance whether they come in 1st, 2nd, or third.

I had no idea they were that high up. Last year they lost the WCC final and it looked like they were the last team out of the NCAA.

That "tonight" is,of course, tomorrow.