March 12, 2012
WNIT Bracket 
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PITTSBURGH - The Duquesne women's basketball team has accepted a bid to play in the 2012 Women's National Invitation Tournament. The Dukes (20-11) will visit Cincinnati (15-15) out the Big East Conference on Friday, March 16th. Game time will be 7:00 p.m.
The winner of the Duquesne/ Cincinnati game will play the winner of Toledo and Detroit.
This is the fourth consecutive postseason appearance for Duquesne. Last season, the Dukes defeated Kent State and Kansas before falling to Illinois State in the Third Round of the WNIT.
DUQ lost its only meeting to UC 90-82 in overtime on Nov. 19, 2007.
The 2012 Postseason WNIT features 32 first-round games, followed by 16 second-round games, eight third-round games, four quarterfinal games, two semifinal games, and the championship. The championship game is televised live, as is one semifinal game. The event offers 31 automatic berths, one to each established conference, and 33 at-large berths.
The Postseason Women's National Invitation Tournament began in 1998 with 16 teams playing for a postseason crown. The event has undergone four expansions throughout which its mission has remained the same: To give deserving teams a quality opportunity to play elevated games for a postseason title. Following the inaugural year, the field doubled to 32 teams and remained that way until 2006 when a renewed commitment was made to schools. The WNIT expanded to a 40-team field to give spots to teams that won their regular-season conference title but did not win their conference tournament and therefore were excluded from the NCAA Tournament.
The WNIT furthered that commitment to conferences in 2007, when it expanded to 48 teams and awarded an automatic berth to each conference. The number of at-large berths remained at 17 until 2010, when the WNIT felt that the level of women's basketball warranted an expansion to the 64-team field
