Game 33, 2022-23: Albany (WNIT 1st Rd, 3/17)

[MikeUMA]

The Minutewomen will be hosting Albany, Friday at 7. Get to the game, then hit the bars for some St. Paddy's day. This team has earned and deserves your support.

The Great Danes are 22-11 this season, and went 14-2 in the America East. That tied Vermont for a share of the regular season title, but UVM got the tiebreaker for #1 in the AE Tourney. The two met in the championship game, and UVM prevailed in a rock fight, 38-36.
https://ualbanysports.com/news/2023/3/1 ... nship.aspx

Common opponent between UM and Albany:
Dartmouth - Albany won on the road 73-45, we won at home 77-58
Maine - Albany went 2-1 against 'em, we won at home 67-54
Lowell - Albany went 3-0 against 'em, we won in Lowell 71-53

[Berkman]

Just remember what I said in an earlier post. EVERY ONE has to pay to go to the game even students. The last time we played in an NIT game someone put up the price of tickets for students which was $ 5 at the time. NO FREE admission for students.

[Sheck]

^
With students on break this week probably not getting much of a student crowd for this one either way.

[Berkman]

Have they announced who is doing the TV?

[69MG]

Just remember what I said in an earlier post. EVERY ONE has to pay to go to the game even students. The last time we played in an NIT game someone put up the price of tickets for students which was $ 5 at the time. NO FREE admission for students.

Free for students for the WNIT.

For all UMass home WNIT home games, seating will be general admission and tickets for the first round of the tournament are $12 each. Admission is free for undergraduate students. Tickets can be purchased by visiting www.umassathletics.com/tickets.

[MikeUMA]

I'm not sure the NIT mandates tickets must be sold at a cost anymore. Maybe they leave it up to the schools, or it's possible UM is just going to reimburse.

I looked at a few other schools...
Seton Hall student tix are free.
Syracuse student tix are $5.
Rhody, Harvard, Nebraska are charging for all tickets.

[MikeUMA]

Have they announced who is doing the TV?

Not yet.

For the 2 games that play Wednesday:
Nebraska's will be on Big Ten Plus, their usual outlet.
Syracuse's doesn't look to be televised/streamed, which they usually do.

Others:
Fordham shows ESPN+ for theirs.
Richmond doesn't have info.
Rhody shows ESPN3 (Isn't that the same as ESPN+? Never been clear about that.)

I suspect ESPN+ will get ours, as they did pretty much every home game, but that's just me guessing. We still have a couple days to figure it out officially.

[InnervisionsUMASS]

I fully expect ESPN+ for this. Hopefully NESN+ will pick it up too.

[kikoandjimmer]

Wondering how the seeding works in the WNIT. Looks like they are grouped by region, we are in region 2. However, based on standard bracket seeding, looks like we are a 2 with URI being the 1 seed. Only would matter if we might have to go down to Kingston later.

https://womensnit.com/tournaments/brack ... n-WNIT/104

[InnervisionsUMASS]

Wondering how the seeding works in the WNIT. Looks like they are grouped by region, we are in region 2. However, based on standard bracket seeding, looks like we are a 2 with URI being the 1 seed. Only would matter if we might have to go down to Kingston later.

https://womensnit.com/tournaments/brack ... n-WNIT/104

Based on that, if it lines up with how a bracket normally is slotted, we're actually the 5 seed. But who the hell knows... so strange they do it like this, and no way in hell should URI be seeded ahead of us.

[MikeUMA]

Wondering how the seeding works in the WNIT. Looks like they are grouped by region, we are in region 2. However, based on standard bracket seeding, looks like we are a 2 with URI being the 1 seed. Only would matter if we might have to go down to Kingston later.

https://womensnit.com/tournaments/brack ... n-WNIT/104

The WNIT is a pay-to-play (pay-to-host) tournament.

Little Rock included the following in their announcement of making the field:

- Everyone wants home games, and the WNIT makes hosting affordable for all teams. Teams can host in the first round for a guarantee of $6,500 a game. They can host in the second round for $7,500 a game.
- The WNIT helps offset those costs and assumes all risk for high-cost travel. Teams pay no more than $12,000 combined for all of their road games in the Postseason WNIT. This allows teams to budget for their postseason play and doesn't penalize them for winning.
- Early-round pairings are regionalized as much as possible in order to minimize missed class time and travel costs.
- The WNIT's travel agents are always available to help teams late at night and on the weekends to secure travel for the next round.

https://lrtrojans.com/news/2023/3/12/wo ... -wnit.aspx

I think that was meant for schools' eyes only, and not for general release.

So if for some reason a school advances, but can't/won't pay the hosting fee, the organizers will find someone who will, and that could nullify the higher seeding. Therefore, they probably prefer to not publish the seed numbers and have that flexibility of giving a lower (worse) seed a home game should that circumstance arise.

[pacman327]

Just remember what I said in an earlier post. EVERY ONE has to pay to go to the game even students. The last time we played in an NIT game someone put up the price of tickets for students which was $ 5 at the time. NO FREE admission for students.

Lol, wrong again.

[69MG]

Any thoughts on how the Verdi news will affect the players? I'm not worried about Sam and Destiney, but what about the returning players?

[TruBluMaroon]

Wondering how the seeding works in the WNIT. Looks like they are grouped by region, we are in region 2. However, based on standard bracket seeding, looks like we are a 2 with URI being the 1 seed. Only would matter if we might have to go down to Kingston later.

https://womensnit.com/tournaments/brack ... n-WNIT/104

The WNIT is a pay-to-play (pay-to-host) tournament.

Little Rock included the following in their announcement of making the field:

- Everyone wants home games, and the WNIT makes hosting affordable for all teams. Teams can host in the first round for a guarantee of $6,500 a game. They can host in the second round for $7,500 a game.
- The WNIT helps offset those costs and assumes all risk for high-cost travel. Teams pay no more than $12,000 combined for all of their road games in the Postseason WNIT. This allows teams to budget for their postseason play and doesn't penalize them for winning.
- Early-round pairings are regionalized as much as possible in order to minimize missed class time and travel costs.
- The WNIT's travel agents are always available to help teams late at night and on the weekends to secure travel for the next round.

https://lrtrojans.com/news/2023/3/12/wo ... -wnit.aspx

I think that was meant for schools' eyes only, and not for general release.

So if for some reason a school advances, but can't/won't pay the hosting fee, the organizers will find someone who will, and that could nullify the higher seeding. Therefore, they probably prefer to not publish the seed numbers and have that flexibility of giving a lower (worse) seed a home game should that circumstance arise.

So, this explains the difference’s in student tickets. Since the NIT is an NCAA enterprise, as teams selected are required to purchase x amount of tickets per round and can give the away as far as the NCAA is concerned, once they get their money. Sometimes you can pick up tickets from distant schools in the early rounds. The Ivy’s don’t want to dip into their multi-billion dollar endowments , so they probably stick it to their students.

[MikeUMA]

Any thoughts on how the Verdi news will affect the players? I'm not worried about Sam and Destiney, but what about the returning players?

That would be speculating on speculation. Verdi is interviewing, but no report of anything further than that at this time.

This season's players should control what they can control: their preparation and focus for Friday's game.