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It appears that both of the ACC’s leading scorers will be heading to the NIT this season.
Breaking: Wake Forest is replacing West Virginia in the @WomensNIT. Deacs will host Akron on Thursday at 7 pm. #ACCwbb @TheNextHoops
— Mitchell Northam (@primetimeMitch) March 14, 2022
West Virgnia earned an automatic qualifying bid to the NIT, but for whatever reason, has decided not to play. That opens the door for Wake Forest to not only play in the tournament but host a first-round matchup against Akron.
The WNIT expanded this season to feature a 64-team field with 30 automatic qualifying bids, which are given to teams that are the next-highest finishers in their conference’s regular season that were not tabbed for the NCAA Tournament. The other 34 teams are at-large selections, chosen after consideration of a mix of criteria by WNIT officials. You can view the full WNIT bracket here.
Akron finished the season 17-11 overall and 13-7 in the MAC. They have one of the better players in women’s basketball in senior Jordyn Dawson, who led the Zips in pretty much every category this season with 22.1 points, 9.2 rebounds, 4.1 assists, and 3.1 steals per game. She was named the MAC player of the year and MAC co-defensive player of the year.
You can find all the info for the game, which will be played Thursday at 7pm at the Joel, here. Go Deacs!