{"id":687388,"date":"2026-03-30T04:51:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T04:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/687388\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T04:51:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T04:51:17","slug":"what-is-the-wbit-and-can-byu-womens-basketball-win-it-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/687388\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the WBIT, and can BYU women’s basketball win it? \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just 53 days ago, the BYU women\u2019s basketball team suffered a 21-point loss at Kansas and fell to 16-7 on the season.<\/p>\n

The loss closely preceded what became a turning point for the Cougars, who have now won eight of their past nine outings entering a rematch with those same Jayhawks on Monday.<\/p>\n

But the stakes for this new BYU-Kansas battle are much higher than they were 53 days ago.<\/p>\n

The Cougars and Jayhawks are facing off in the semifinals of the Women\u2019s Basketball Invitational Tournament, or WBIT, as two of the last four remaining squads from the initial 32-team field.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s semifinal contest with be played at 3 p.m. MT at Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kansas, a little more than 150 miles southwest of the Jayhawks\u2019 home in Lawrence.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrateful to be here in Wichita. Grateful for this tournament. Grateful for the quality of the tournament and the quality of the teams that have been in,\u201d BYU head coach Lee Cummard told reporters Sunday. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a great experience for our group, and we\u2019re looking forward to playing a very quality Kansas team that we\u2019re familiar with tomorrow evening here in this arena. Just looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is the WBIT?<\/p>\n

Now in its third season, the WBIT is the women\u2019s equivalent of the men\u2019s NIT event, becoming the NCAA\u2019s second-tier tournament behind March Madness.<\/p>\n

Holding a 22-11 record after the Big 12 tournament, BYU was the first team outside of the NCAA Tournament, thus earning a 1 seed in the WBIT.<\/p>\n

The Cougars have made the most of their favorable seeding, earning victories over Alabama A&M, Missouri and Stanford in the tournament\u2019s first three rounds by winning margins of 25, 18 and 15 points, respectively. <\/p>\n

This will be BYU\u2019s first-ever appearance in the Final Four of a major postseason tournament, and defeating Kansas would be the first time the Cougars have ever won four postseason games in a single season.<\/p>\n

While it was surely disappointing to miss the NCAA Tournament, the WBIT has offered underclassmen-heavy BYU the opportunity to earn extended tournament experience, which will prove especially valuable in coming years as the Cougars\u2019 current core continues to grow and develop.<\/p>\n

And why not capture a championship in the process?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the chemistry has been building all year with the group that\u2019s starting and playing the most minutes, and I think that\u2019s starting to show at least in this tournament very well,\u201d Cummard said.<\/p>\n

BYU star point guard Delaney Gibb has taken her play to another level in the WBIT, averaging 22.3 points, 7.7 rebounds and 4.4 assists in each of the three outings while shooting 54.5% from 3-point range.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s the face of this team. Obviously she scores a lot of points, but she also has a really big role of just keeping us connected and tied together because she is such a great player,\u201d said Cougars forward Brinley Cannon. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think she\u2019s held that role and position with a lot of grace and in a really selfless way. I think when you have really good players doing that, then it\u2019s contagious for the rest of the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

A familiar foe<\/p>\n

While Kansas did beat BYU back in February and entered the WBIT with a higher NET ranking, BYU has actually enjoyed a better overall campaign than the Jayhawks.<\/p>\n

Kansas is currently 22-13, having gone 8-10 in Big 12 play and 1-1 in the conference tournament compared with BYU\u2019s own respective marks of 25-11, 9-9 and 2-1.<\/p>\n

In their WBIT wins over Troy, Rice and San Diego State, the 2-seeded Jayhawks scored an average of 75.3 points and allowed 67.6 defensively.<\/p>\n

BYU\u2019s Feb. 4 loss to Kansas saw the Cougars shoot a putrid 30% from the field \u2014 10.5% less than their current season average \u2014 with the Jayhawks winning the rebound battle by a convincing 49-31 margin.<\/p>\n

That Kansas loss began a slide of four setbacks in five games for the Cougars before their recent surge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s one of the things that I\u2019d like to take away from this year, is when we faced some adversity, we didn\u2019t go away from each other, we kind of got tighter as a group,\u201d Cummard said. \u201c(I\u2019m) really proud of the way the resiliency and the grit of the group came together and turned inward and doubled down on each other as a group. From there, we\u2019ve been playing really good basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been aggressive. I think the confidence level has increased drastically with the group, and again, I\u2019ll point to that chemistry, it\u2019s been really apparent over the last eight (wins) of our last nine (games), and it\u2019s against real high-quality opponents.\u201d<\/p>\n

No Sunday practice for BYU<\/p>\n

While its three fellow WBIT Final Four teams will practice on Sunday ahead of Monday\u2019s semifinals, BYU will have the day off.<\/p>\n

Owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, BYU holds a policy of not taking part in any athletic events on Sundays.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s a practice or a game, the regular season or the postseason. BYU does not back down<\/a> from its no-Sunday stance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a program of faith. It\u2019s not just (the Latter-day Saint) faith. There\u2019s several faiths represented within our program, and we have that Sabbath day for everybody to kind of reflect and have the day off, have it to themselves to do what they want,\u201d Cummard said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something that I really value, that I know every Sabbath day or Sunday I\u2019m going to be at home with my wife and kids and be able to worship the way that I choose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some may view not practicing Sunday before Monday\u2019s game as a disadvantage for BYU, but the Cougars couldn\u2019t disagree more.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think when you step back and look at it from a perspective of our team and the culture that we\u2019ve built and the faith that we have, it\u2019s a day that we get to have a different perspective on life, and there\u2019s things that are bigger than basketball,\u201d Gibb said.<\/p>\n

\u201cJesus Christ and having faith in him is something that\u2019s bigger than basketball, so for us, it\u2019s an opportunity to step away from kind of the worldly things and focus on the relationship that we are building with our Lord and Savior. Whether that be whatever you believe in, it\u2019s just a day to be able to represent that and just focus on things that might be a little more important than the game that we play and we love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Cannon, \u201cI think for me, personally, it\u2019s just a day to rest, reflect and just recenter my life on Jesus Christ and what he\u2019s done for me and for all of us. Honestly, I think it really helps to have that day for us to come back Monday, everyone\u2019s rejuvenated, everyone\u2019s kind of had their break and rested and recentered and is ready to focus. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, that\u2019s kind of the way I\u2019ve lived my whole life, so honestly, I don\u2019t think that there\u2019s a ton of cons that come with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"BYU players celebrate during the Cougars’ matchup with the Missouri Tigers in the second round of the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament at the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah, on Monday, March 23, 2026. | Ellie Alder\/BYU Athletics <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just 53 days ago, the BYU women\u2019s basketball team suffered a 21-point loss at Kansas and fell to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,1111],"class_list":{"0":"post-687388","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-news-feed-local"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116316334054816462","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}