Florida women's basketball earns WBIT bid for second season in a row, will host Northern Iowa

The Florida women’s basketball team is postseason bound.

Not the NCAA Tournament, but the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT).

The Gators accepted a bid to the invitational Sunday evening. As a No. 3 seed, they face Northern Iowa on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the O’Connell Center.

It’s the second straight year UF has appeared in the WBIT, and the event’s second year of existence. It replaced the WNIT as the No. 2 postseason tournament. Last season, Florida also earned a No. 3 seed, but it fell at home to St. John’s in the first round at home.

Part of what gave the Gators a bid was an impressive quarterfinal run in the SEC Tournament. As an 11 seed, they defeated Auburn and upset sixth-seeded Alabama to advance to the tournament quarterfinals for the second year in a row. Third-seeded LSU went on to defeat Florida 101-87 in the quarterfinals.

After beginning SEC regular season play 2-2, UF lost six of its next seven and ultimately finished 5-11 in conference play. However, the tournament run was enough to gain Kelly Rae Finley her fourth postseason bid.

In her first season, 2021-22, she took Florida to the NCAA Tournament for the only since 2016. The next season, the Gators advanced to the WNIT Elite Eight.

At 17-16, Northern Iowa has some signature moments this season. It upset then-No. 8 in-state rival Iowa State, which received a bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Panthers ultimately lost in the Missouri Valley Tournament quarterfinals.

Florida is the lone SEC team in the WBIT. Ten SEC squads earned bids to the NCAA Tournament. Mississippi State (No. 9 seed in Region 4) is the only tournament-bound team UF defeated this season – the Gators beat the Bulldogs at home 69-66 on February 16 on a Jeriah Warren buzzer-beating three.

Noah Ram covers Gainesville-area high school sports and University of Florida athletics for The Gainesville Sun, GatorSports.com and the USA TODAY Network. Contact him by email at Nram@gannett.com and follow him @Noah_ram1 on X/Twitter.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Florida women's basketball earns WBIT bid, faces Northern Iowa Thursday

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