Huskers Host Drake in First Round of WNIT

Lincoln - The Nebraska women’s basketball team (17-11) earned its first postseason tournament bid since the 2000 NCAA Tournament, when the Huskers were chosen to play host to the Drake Bulldogs (16-14) in the first round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament at the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Thursday, March 18, at 7:05 p.m.

Tickets for the first round of the WNIT are on sale now at Huskers.com and will be available beginning Monday morning by calling the Nebraska Athletic Ticket Office at 1-800-8BIGRED or (402) 472-3111. A-Level Reserved Seating is available for $9, while B & C-Level Reserved Seating is available for $7. General Admission Adult Seating is $5, and General Admission Youth and Senior Citizen Seating is $3.

The Huskers are very familiar with the Drake program, which finished with a 16-14 overall record this season and advanced to the championship game of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament on Saturday at Springfield, Mo., where the Bulldogs lost to the hosts from Southwest Missouri State.

Nebraska is 8-8 in the all-time series with Drake, including a 63-55 loss to the Bulldogs on Dec. 5, 2002. The Huskers have played Drake four times since the 1998 season. The Bulldogs are under the direction of first-year coach Amy Stephens, who was not only one of the top players in Nebraska women’s basketball history, but also served as an assistant coach under Nebraska Coach Connie Yori with the Huskers last season. Stephens is the No. 3 all-time leading scorer in Husker history, amassing 1,976 points from 1986 to 1989. Stephens, a native of Alliance, Neb., graduated from Nebraska in 1991 and spent eight seasons as the head coach at Nebraska-Kearney from 1994 to 2002.

In addition to Stephens’ connection to the Nebraska program, Drake assistant coach Micah Parker also served as the director of women’s basketball operations for the Huskers last season. A 1991 graduate of Concordia in Seward, Neb., Parker spent four seasons as the head coach of the Concordia women’s program before joining the Husker staff.

"We’re very excited about having an opportunity to continue our season in the WNIT and to host at least a first-round game in the tournament," Yori said. "It is a great opportunity for us to win some more games and continue the progression of our program with a postseason appearance. We know Drake is going to be a quality opponent. I obviously have a lot of respect for Amy Stephens as a coach, and I know that Drake is going to be a well-coached team."

The Huskers enjoyed one of the biggest turnarounds in NCAA Division I women’s basketball this season, producing a 17-11 overall record and a 7-9 mark in Big 12 Conference regular-season action. Nebraska produced nine more victories than last season’s squad that finished with an 8-20 mark and a 1-15 Big 12 record. The Huskers’ nine-game turnaround ranks among the top-10 turnarounds in the nation this season.

Nebraska finished in a three-way tie with Missouri and Iowa State for seventh place in the Big 12 standings, as the Big 12 sent nine teams to postseason play. Seven Big 12 teams, including Texas, Kansas State, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Colorado, Baylor and Missouri advanced to the 2004 NCAA Tournament, while Nebraska and Iowa State moved on to the WNIT.

The Cyclones, who knocked the Huskers out of the first round of the Big 12 Tournament on Tuesday, March 9, open the WNIT with a first-round game against Idaho State at Hilton Coliseum in Ames on March 17.

If the Huskers are able to get past Drake, they would play the winner of the Gonzaga at Oregon State contest, which is scheduled for Friday, March 19, in Corvallis, Ore. The other first-round games in Nebraska’s eight-team bracket include Pepperdine at Washington and Creighton at Colorado State.

First-round games in the WNIT are scheduled for March 17-19, while second-round games will be held March 19-22 in the single-elimination tournament. Third-round games are slated for March 24-25, while WNIT semifinal games will be played March 26-28. The championship game of the 32-team tournament will be held March 30-April 2. All games in the WNIT are played at host institutions.

For more information about other tournament teams and game times, log on to www.womensnit.com.