Oregon Ducks accept WNIT bid, host North Dakota State in first round

Oregon guard Ahlise Hurst chases the ball against Washington during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the first round of the Pac-12 women’s tournament Wednesday, March 1, 2023, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)

Kelly Graves and the Oregon Ducks women’s basketball team will host North Dakota State on Friday night in the first round of the NIT, the school announced today.

Oregon was on the bubble to make the NCAA Tournament, but were among the most notable programs on the outside looking in after Selection Sunday.

See you Friday at MKA.

Full bracket: https://t.co/lZPeZpndVU #GoDucks | #WNIT pic.twitter.com/omygPQ3Hvr

— Oregon Women’s Basketball (@OregonWBB) March 13, 2023

Seven teams from the Pac-12 Conference made the NCAA Tournament field of 68 (Stanford, Washington State, Colorado, UCLA, USC, Arizona, Utah).

The Portland Pilots are a 12-seed in the NCAA Tournament after claiming the automatic bid with the West Coast Conference tournament championship. They face 5-seed Oklahoma in the first round on Saturday night in Los Angeles.

More from the Oregon athletics press release:

EUGENE, Ore. – Following its acceptance into the 2023 WNIT, it was announced Monday that Oregon will take on North Dakota State Friday at 7 p.m. PT in the opening round of the postseason tournament at Matthew Knight Arena.

The Ducks are the top seed in their half of the Group 1 bracket, with first-round matchups getting underway March 15-17 at 32 host sites across the country. Also in UO’s half of the Group 1 bracket are BYU, Long Beach State, Rice, San Diego, San Diego State and UC Irvine. The winner of Friday’s matchup between the Ducks and Bison will advance and take on the winner of BYU and Rice in the second round.

Oregon claimed the 2002 WNIT title in addition to winning the 1989 NWIT championship. All-time, UO is 18-5 in the invitational tournament, with an 11-2 record at home.

Oregon finished the regular season 17-14 and 7-11 in Pac-12 play, finishing the year tied for eighth in the league standings. The Ducks boast a NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rating of 19 and Her Hoop Stats rating of 28. UO is one of two Pac-12 teams to accept a bid into this year’s WNIT (Washington).

The Ducks went 3-1 against teams in this year’s WNIT bracket, matching up with Arkansas and Washington during the regular season. The bid mark UO’s third under Graves, who owns a 5-2 record (4-1 at home) in the WNIT in his Oregon tenure.

2023 WNIT SCHEDULE:
Round 1 – March 15-17
Round 2 – March 18-21
Round 3 – March 22-24
Quarterfinals – March 25-27
Semifinals – March 28-29
Championship – Saturday, April 1 at 2:30 p.m. PT (CBS Sports Network)

OREGON IN THE WNIT