Cal Earns At-Large Bid To WBIT

The California women's basketball team earned an at-large berth into the third annual NCAA Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament, as announced as part of the WBIT Selection Show on Sunday evening. The Golden Bears (19-14, 9-9 ACC) earned the No. 3 seed and will host Santa Clara (24-9, 13-5 WCC) on Thursday at Haas Pavilion (exact gametime TBD). 

This marks Cal’s second appearance in the WBIT after earning an at-large bid and a No. 2 seed in 2024 when the Bears hosted and advanced to the second round.

The second round will take place on March 22 and the quarterfinals on March 26, with the highest-seeded teams hosting games. WBIT semifinal and final games will be played March 30 and April 1 at Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kansas.

Every game of the 32-team tournament will be broadcast on the ESPN family of networks, with ESPN+ being the exclusive home for all preliminary-round games. The semifinals will air on ESPNU at 2:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern time, and the championship will air on ESPN2 at 7 p.m. ET.

Cal owns an overall record of 26-24 in postseason play (NCAA Tournament, WBIT and WNIT) with its most recent appearance coming last season when the Bears were a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

The winner of Thursday's matchup will take on the winner of Kansas State and Georgia Tech in the second round.

Going back to the 2024-25 season, Cal is 28-5 overall at home and since the 2023-24 season, the Bears have won 19 straight nonconference regular season games. Cal features junior guard Lulu Twidale who earned All-ACC Second Team honors after finishing the regular season as just one of two players in the ACC to rank in the top 10 for scoring (17.0 - 7th), assists per game (4.2 - 8th), 3-pointers made (63 – 1st) and free throw percentage (93.0 - 1st) during conference play.