Updated 1 p.m. March 25: ٺƵ’ historic run in the postseason came to an end today in Assembly Hall at the University of Indiana, where the host Hoosiers defeated the Aggies, 81-66, in the quarterfinals of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament. ٺƵ won three games to get to this point in the WNIT — the farthest the team has gone in the postseason since moving up to Division I in 2008. The Aggies finished the year with a most impressive record of 28-7 and their second consecutive Big West Conference title.
AGGIES IN THE WNIT
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This year marked the Aggie women’s fifth trip to the Division I postseason, having gone to the WNIT four times previously and to the NCAA Tournament once, in 2011. In last year’s WNIT, the Aggie women defeated Utah and Colorado State for the program’s first postseason wins ever in Division I, before bowing out in the Sweet 16. This year’s team made it to the Elite 8 after defeating Idaho at home (the first time ٺƵ hosted a postseason game in Division I) and Wyoming and Kansas State on the road. In between playing the Cowgirls and the Wildcats, the Aggies came home for finals.
Updated 7 p.m. March 23: The Aggies defeated Kansas State tonight, 71-69, to advance to the quarterfinals of the WNIT — one game farther than the ٺƵ women have ever gone in the Division I postseason. They’ll take on the Hoosiers of the University of Indiana in Bloomington this Sunday (March 25), tipping off at 11 a.m. PDT.
Indiana (20-14) finished seventh in the Big 10 this season and has advanced in the WNIT by defeating Tennessee-Martin, Milwaukee and Purdue. ٺƵ (28-6), regular season champion of the Big West Conference, has advanced in the WNIT by defeating Idaho and Wyoming, and now, in the Round of 16, Kansas State.
In last year’s WNIT, the Aggie women won their first games ever in Division I postseason — winning twice before falling in the Round of 16.
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Within an hour of their tournament win Sunday afternoon (March 18) in Laramie, Wyoming, the ٺƵ women’s basketball team boarded their bus for the Denver airport, then rode through a snowstorm to catch the last flight out to Sacramento — arriving there about 1 a.m. Monday, just hours before final exams began.
Because, even in the middle of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament, schoolwork continues for this team of student-athletes with majors that include managerial economics, computer engineering, psychology, global disease biology, nutrition science and biomedical engineering.
FINALIST
Jennifer Gross is a finalist for national coach of the year.
The Aggies are taking as many finals as they can — and attending team practices — before flying out early Thursday for Manhattan, Kansas, for their Round of 16 game Friday (March 23) against Kansas State.
Sunday’s game in Laramie ended at about 1:45 p.m., and the Aggies were on the bus within 45 minutes. “There was a snowstorm in Laramie ... and we wanted to make sure we could get back to Denver,” coach Jennifer Gross told Dateline ٺƵ. “Thankfully we were able to get out.”
As it turned out, they had a couple of hours to spare: “We asked our student-athletes what they wanted to do,” Gross said. “They all agreed that they needed to study, so instead of going shopping or to a restaurant, we stopped at a café and the team studied for two hours. That’s the kind of team this is. They know what they need to do to be successful and commit to it.”
They made it to the airport for their 10:30 p.m. flight — which was then delayed an hour. “We didn’t arrive back in Sacramento until about 1 a.m.,” Gross said, estimating the team finally made it to campus at about 1:45 a.m.
“A few of our student-athletes actually had to take finals Monday,” Gross said. “Pretty tough on just a few hours of sleep!”
Gross said her players are working with their professors to reschedule Thursday-Friday exams to earlier in the week. In some cases, that will not be possible, so Gross will administer a number of finals Thursday and Friday on the road.
“I could not be more proud of how our players handle the challenges of succeeding in a rigorous academic environment while competing at the highest level for basketball,” Gross said. “Our student-athletes have been competing since November and continually find a way to balance everything.
“They are highly motivated to achieve in both school and basketball, so they become very good with time management, organization and managing stress. As a coach, I believe they are developing invaluable tools for success after their college careers are complete.”
Sweet 16: 2 years in a row
The Aggies are in the 64-team WNIT for the fifth time since ٺƵ moved up to Division I in 2008, and in the Sweet 16 for the second year in a row. In last year’s tournament, the Aggies defeated Utah and Colorado State for the team’s first Division I postseason wins, before falling to Washington State.
CHAMPIONSHIP GEAR
Big West championship gear
for the women's and men's teams is available through .
This year the Aggies defeated Idaho, 82-62, in Round 1, in a game played last Thursday night (March 15) at The Pavilion — the first time the Aggies hosted a postseason game in the program’s Division I history. They traveled to Wyoming for Round 2, defeating the Cowgirls, 74-64.
The Wildcats made their way to the Round of 16 by defeating Saint Louis, 75-61, and then Utah, 74-57. The Wildcats (19-15) finished seventh in the Big 12 regular season with a 7-11 record, and opened the conference championship with a win over Kansas, 72-63, before falling to Baylor, 83-54, winner of the regular-season title and eventual winner of the conference tournament.
The Aggies are 27-6 and won the Big West regular-season title with a record of 14-2.
Aggie men in the NIT
The Aggie men won their regular-season title to earn a berth in the National Invitation Tournament, the team’s third postseason appearance in four years.
The Aggies opened at Utah, where they led the first three quarters (the NIT is experimenting with four 10-minute quarters this year) before the Utes took the lead early in the fourth and went on to victory, 69-59, knocking ٺƵ out of the tournament.
The men’s team finished the season with a 22-11 record.