BYU, Utah women earn top seeds in WBIT

PROVO — Last week's Big 12 women's basketball tournament second-round game was billed as an NCAA Tournament eliminator by many.

Both teams were eliminated from the field of 68 Sunday morning.

The Cougars and Utes were listed among the "First Four Out" by the NCAA selection committee, giving them two of the four No. 1 seeds in the WBIT postseason tournament.

BYU (22-11) will host Alabama A&M in Thursday's first round, while Utah (19-12) will travel to Eastern Kentucky as the top seed. Every first-round game will be streamed on ESPN+. Should Utah win its first game, the Utes will return home to host a second-round game.

The semifinals are scheduled for March 30 at Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kansas, on ESPNU. The championship will be two days later on ESPN2.

The third-year tournament provides automatic bids to regular-season conference champions, as well as top seeds to the traditional "First Four Out" of the NCAA Tournament — effectively making it the second-best tournament in women's college basketball (and on line with the men's NIT).

North Dakota State and Texas A&M are the other top seeds.

BYU had one of the top NET rankings among teams outside the NCAA Tournament field, a No. 56 ranking that ranked two spots higher than the Utes. The Cougars swept the regular-season rivalry series for the first time since 2011, and added a 70-52 win in the second of three games in Kansas City.

The Cougars finished the season winning five of their final six games. But BYU's resume also lacked quality wins, including an 0-5 record in Quad 1 games. The Cougars did have an 8-4 record against Quad 2 opponents and a nonconference win over Virginia Tech, a No. 9 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

But BYU also had losses to Cincinnati and Arizona outside of the top-two quadrants and a 9-9 record in Big 12 play.

Utah had key wins, including a pair of ranked victories against TCU and Iowa State in the Huntsman Center. But the Utes were just 4-8 in Quad 2 games, and were swept by both BYU and Arizona State — which snuck into the tournament via "First Four" play-in game against 10th-seeded Virginia.

Now both teams will get a chance to prove they belong in the postseason, a valuable experience for a BYU squad led by youth.

"Despite being left out of the NCAA Tournament field, I am grateful for the opportunity that our team has to continue our season in the WBIT," BYU first-year head coach Lee Cummard said. "Earning a spot in the postseason is always the goal for our team, and getting the opportunity to play in the Marriott Center again is always a blessing. We look forward to facing a good Alabama A&M team on Thursday and getting back to playing BYU basketball."

Five of the Cougars' top seven scorers are freshmen or sophomores, including two-time All-Big 12 guard Delaney Gibb at 17.8 points per game and former Snow Canyon star Olivia Hamlin (12.3 ppg).

The Utes are a bit more experienced and are led by the senior tandem of Lani White (15.8 ppg) and Maty Wilke (10.5 ppg) to go with junior Reese Ross (9.5 ppg). TheWBIT will markt he Utes' fifth consecutive postseason appearance after earning trips to the NCAA Tournament the past four years.

"We're excited to get the opportunity to continue to play," said Utah coach Gavin Petersen, who is in his first full season as head coach. "At the end of the day we get to keep this group together and play basketball and we're going to try to keep that alive as long as we can."

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