Hogs miss NCAA, but land around top of field for WNIT field

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas was chosen as one of 32 automatic qualifying teams for the 2023 Postseason WNIT, as announced Sunday.

The Hogs will play Louisiana Tech at 7 p.m. on Thursday night.

But it wasn’t where Razorbacks coach Mike Neighbors wanted this team to be, which was the NCAA. The Hogs fell just short of getting, but now they don’t have time to dwell on that.

“Not getting in is always disappointing,” Neighbors said Sunday night. “We knew we’d be on the bubble, but hoped we’d be strong enough in one areas the committee was looking at.”

They don’t have time now to be thinking of that.

“You can always find out reasons to be frustrated,” he said. “We could have done things to be in.”

The Hogs can re-live those mistakes later, though. They will have games to play, but against what team and where hasn’t been announced yet.

“We can learn from our mistakes later on,” Neighbors said.

The WNIT selection will mark the 26th postseason appearance for the Razorbacks, eighth in the WNIT. The Razorbacks have a 21-12 record this season heading into the tournament.

This year’s selection marks Arkansas’ fifth straight postseason appearance (counting the Covid year in 2020, in which the Razorbacks had a 24-8 record). Only three SEC schools have qualified for the past five postseason tournaments with South Carolina and Tennessee being the other two.

In the WNIT opening round, Arkansas is 6-0. The Razorbacks are also 3-3 in the second round and have won the whole tournament once before, coming in 1999 with a 67-64 win over Wisconsin in front of a record-breaking crowd of 14,163 fans. Overall, Arkansas is 16-5 in the WNIT.

The WNIT field consists of 64 teams, 32 of which have earned an automatic berth for being a conference’s top finisher, as did Arkansas, as well as 32 at-large selections.

The full postseason WNIT bracket will be released Monday, March 13 at 1 p.m.

DATES

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 4:30 p.m. CT (broadcast on CBS Sports Network)

AQ’s (32 – * denotes regular season champion/co-champion)

Arkansas (21-12) – Southeastern
*Boston (24-8) — Patriot
Bowling Green (27-6) – Mid-American
*Columbia (23-5) – Ivy
*Fairleigh Dickinson (24-7) — Northeast
*Green Bay (27-5) – Horizon
High Point (17-14) – Big South
*Illinois State (24-8) – Missouri Valley
*Jackson State (21-9) – Southwestern Athletic
Kansas (19-11) – Big 12
Liberty (24-8) — Atlantic Sun
*Little Rock (21-10) – Ohio Valley
Memphis (20-10) – American Athletic
Morgan State (17-11) — Mid-Eastern Athletic
Nebraska (16-14) – Big Ten
Niagara (18-12) – Metro Atlantic Athletic
North Dakota State (18-11) – Summit
*Northern Arizona (21-13) – Big Sky
San Diego (17-13) – West Coast
Seton Hall (18-14) – Big East
*Stephen F. Austin (26-6) — Western Athletic
Syracuse (18-12) – Atlantic Coast
*Texas A&M Corpus Christi (19-11) – Southland
Texas State (23-9) – Sun Belt
*Towson (21-11) — Colonial Athletic
*UAlbany (22-11) – America East
*UC-Irvine (24-6) – Big West
*UMass (26-6) – Atlantic 10
Washington (15-14) – Pac 12
Western Kentucky (19-13) — Conference USA
*Wofford (22-9) – Southern
Wyoming (22-10) – Mountain West

At Large (32)

Auburn (15-14) – Southeastern
Ball State (25-8) – Mid-American
*Belmont (23-11) – Missouri Valley
BYU (16-16) – West Coast
Clemson (17-15) – Atlantic Coast
Colorado State (20-11) – Mountain West
Drexel (21-9) – Colonial Athletic
Florida (16-14) – Southeastern
Fordham (18-12) – Atlantic 10
Harvard (17-11) – Ivy
Kansas State (17-16) – Big 12
Kent State (21-10) – Mid-American
Long Beach State (23-9) – Big West
Louisiana Tech (19-12) – Conference USA
Missouri (17-13) – Southeastern
Missouri State (20-11) – Missouri Valley
New Mexico (20-12) – Mountain West
Northern Iowa (22-9) – Missouri Valley
Oregon (17-14) – Pac 12
Penn (17-11) – Ivy
*Rhode Island (24-6) – Atlantic 10
Rice (22-8) – Conference USA
Richmond (20-10) – Atlantic 10
Saint Joseph’s (20-10) – Atlantic 10
San Diego State (23-10) – Mountain West
San Francisco (19-12) – West Coast
SMU (16-12) – American
Texas Tech (18-14) – Big 12
Tulane (18-13) – American
UTEP (20-11) – Conference USA
Wake Forest (16-16) – Atlantic Coast
Wichita State (18-14) – American Athletic

Information from Arkansas Communications is included in this story.