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From what I'm reading NIT it is

From reading that it looks like the WNIT. Still a nice postseason opportunity for these ladies.

We can only hope Nicholls wins it all now. Came out too flat in the first half

This seems to be the MO of this team. Way too many games when they don't
show up in the first half. Hard to explain this loss...still had great season with
Championship. WNIT will give better opportunity to win a few games. This game
will be an eye opener for a lot of people...not just the players. When the tourney
comes around, you better bring your A game.

The definition of flat combined with a good effort from Nichols. Hoping for WNIT but worried without Desiree and lasting impact of such a surprising blowout.

Always fun to watch this year so thanks to the Sugar Bears.

Hard to understand?...McCarthy hits 7/10 3s and Nicholls hits 14/25 for 3.... that pretty well tells the story...Tony said we tried every defense and matchup we had but simply could not deny McCarthy the ball. It is so hard to beat a team three times in one season.....that had me concerned from the start ....

PS...for a pick me up...read the Softball thread....

Haven't heard...is Desiree out? What happened?

She went down in the 1st half with a leg injury. Had a brace, crutches, and ice the rest of the game.

Wow...that's a shame. Hate to see a kid get hurt. I hope she will be ok.

The story in the LCD says that we are the automatic qualifier for the WNIT. We will find out Monday when and where we play next!

It would be hilarious if we got to play Arkansas in the WNIT, however at 22-8, they are probably headed to the NCAA Tournament.

And this is why I strongly disagree with the way our AQ is chosen for the NCAA tourney. Persevering through a long season of conference games with all the travel involved basically doesn't mean squat for winning the conference. You run into a buzzsaw like we did yesterday and you've kissed your sister concerning the NCAA tourney and the reward for a long hard fought conference season.

It seems to me that the regular season champ should represent the conference in the playoffs. You can still have your conference tourney at the end with a better seeding possibly happening if the regular season champ wins. If some other team happens to win the tourney then they keep their fingers crossed that they get an at-large bid. If they don't, then WNIT here we come.

These conference tournaments are kinda like a marriage. Hell, we're all happy for one week. Not really representative of what a good marriage is all about. After the first week..... It's the long marriages that are truly representative of how a good marriage is measured.

So it should be with basketball and baseball.

UALR has punched its ticket for the big dance and Ark will surely get an at large bid with their rpi plus being from the SEC doesn't hurt. So sadly probably no instate match up for us in the WNIT.

The Sugarbears have nothing to hang their heads about. There was no way they could have prepared for Nicholls to come out and play one of their best games in their program's history. They made 14-3's! That is insane! Their coach said she was in tears watching them durin their shoot-around because they finally got it. I don't think the Lady Colonels were going to be denied yesterday, and give them all the credit for that!
Our Sugarbears still had an amazing season! They were the outright regular season champs, and noone can doubt how great they were during the regular season. They now get to play in the postseason (for the 2nd time in 2 years!). They will hopefully have a fairly nice seed in the WNIT, and have a chance to win some games. As opposed to the Big Dance where we would have probably been a 15 seed and lost in the 1st round.
All that being said, I am a very proud Sugarbear fan!!

GO SUGARBEARS!!

The tournament system is what it is.

We've got to play a better pre-season if we want to increase our chance for an at-large tournament bid. Non-D1 teams like Paul Quinn, Ecclesia, Central Baptist and Philander Smith do nothing to improve RPI. Our strength of schedule, while better than last year, wasn't great.

Like it or not, the Southland schedule isn't going to move us up enough in the RPI, so non-conference games are our best chance. Now that the SB RPI is in the 70s, they can get serious looks by better teams. The schedule this year had some great teams to play with Indiana, Alabama, etc., but the non-D1 schedule hurt us. Every non-D1 game is a missed opportunity to raise our RPI. In general, we're better off playing a higher ranked D1 team and losing than playing a non-D1 team and winning.

Probably right but that would likely mean more road games (and fewer home games)....there are two D1 schools in the state we ought to play every year but that is not likely to happen. It cost to travel so people like home games. So unless you go to a big conference program who can pay something meaningful you are stuck trying to squeeze in who you can. My guess it may be a while before we get any SEC team to Conway...the top teams would not consider it andf the lower tier are not crazy.