Boston College women's basketball won't be going dancing, after all. The Eagles (19-11, 10-8 ACC), who were vying for their first NCAA Tournament bid since 2006, were left on the wrong side of the bubble Sunday night.
BC was, however, invited to play in the 64-team WNIT, an annual postseason tournament that is a step below March Madness.
It marks the first time the Eagles will play in the postseason since 2010-11. That team was coached by Sylvia Crawley and made it to the WNIT Sweet Sixteen. Three of Crawley's squads earned WNIT bids, but the program declined an invite in 2009-10.
Since the turn of the century, this is the second time BC has posted a winning record in conference play yet missed the NCAA Tournament. Both have been in the Joanna Bernabei-McNamee era. It first happened in 2019-20 when the Eagles finished tied for fourth in the ACC with an 11-7 league record—before they could learn their fate, the NCAA Tournament was canceled because of COVID-19.
Perhaps the biggest surprise Sunday night was DePaul earning an at-large bid to play Dayton for an 11-seed in the Field of 64. The Blue Demons (22-10, 14-6 Big East) ranked 52nd in NET and, according to HerHoopStats, 73rd in simple RPI, not to mention they had zero top-25 wins. Missouri (18-12, 7-9 SEC) might have had a better case than BC. The Tigers, also snubbed, ranked 49th in NET and 40th in simple RPI, plus they upset South Carolina, a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and the top team in NET.
BC, meanwhile, clocked out at 48th in NET and 57th in simple RPI, and the Eagles' lone ranked win came against a top-20 Notre Dame squad. But they also dropped games to BU and VCU and blew a 13-point fourth quarter lead to then-No. 25 UNC.
Most importantly, though, the Eagles were swept by fellow bubble team Florida State. Going into the ACC Tournament, ESPN's Charlie Creme had BC as part of his "last four in." But then the Eagles lost their first game in the league tourney to FSU, dropping outside of his projection. Heading into Sunday, BC was the second team on the outside looking in.
The WNIT bracket will be announced Monday afternoon at 2 p.m.
It's certainly not where the Eagles wanted to fall, especially not with a group of five seniors who sniffed an NCAA Tournament bid two years ago.
That said, a WNIT appearance is a step forward for a program that has proven that 2019-20 wasn't a fluke and that BC is firmly above water in the ACC—the first conference to send at least eight teams to the women's NCAA Tournament four years in a row.
