Inaugural WBIT drawing plenty of attention to sport

Women’s game continues to shine in prime time

INDIANAPOLIS — As the eagerly anticipated LSU- Iowa women’s rematch was about to tip off, Washington State coach Kamie Ethridge took a seat in Indianapolis, lamented her team’s season-ending loss and celebrated another milestone moment for the sport.

Four more women’s teams were playing here, in April, thanks to the NCAA’s new Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament.

Inside one of the sport’s venerable venues, Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse, Ethridge was one of many players and coaches gushing about the opportunities this new event presented for the game — even after an 81-58 semifinal loss to Illinois in front of a mostly orange-clad crowd on Monday night.

“Unfortunately, I don’t know if that was neutral,” Ethridge joked. “I thought Illinois showed up really well. Great environment, great environment and better to have that than an empty arena.”

Sure, getting fans to Monday afternoon games with the second game bleeding into the start of the much ballyhooed Caitlin Clark-Angel Reese rivalry never was going to be easy.

But the start times created a seemingly made-fortelevision quadrupleheader on one of the biggest days in the sport’s history.

For those who made the two-hour drive from Champaign to Indy, it was well worth the trip.

Fourth-seeded Illinois ( 18- 15) has now won a school record four consecutive postseason games in a single tournament.

One more — Wednesday night against top-seeded Villanova (22-12) — would give the Fighting Illini their first postseason tournament title in program history.

So in a season filled with a growing amount of sellouts, major headlines and more prime-time televised games and increasing ratings, the scene playing out at Hinkle seemed a natural reflection of the changing dynamics of women’s basketball across the nation.

“It was definitely a sea of orange out there,” Illinois center Camille Hobby said. “So many of our fans drove over from the university area and other parts of Illinois, it was really exciting to see everyone. They were loud. It was exciting. It definitely was a boost to us.”

A larger crowd may show up for Wednesday’s 7 p.m. tip.

Another indication of the growing popularity of women’s basketball is that the WNIT still exists as it always has, under a separate ownership group from both the NCAA and the previous NIT organizers.

That means even more women’s teams can keep playing and Penn State coach Carolyn Kieger believes it provides an invaluable foundational benefit.

“I’ve been a part of a lot of WNIT Championship games or Final Four games, and now with the WBIT, I did it,” she said after the Nittany Lions’ 58-53 loss in the semifinals to Villanova. “Every single time, it propelled us into the future. It taught us how to win in March. It taught us how to lose. It taught us how to be tough.”