BERKELEY, Calif. — The University of Hawai'i women's basketball team's postseason journey continues to the Bay Area for a matchup with California in the inaugural Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament.
 
The Rainbow Wahine and Golden Bears meet in the first round of the 32-team tournament on Thursday, March 21 at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley, Calif. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. Pacific Time (4 p.m. Hawai'i Time). UH earned an automatic berth into the field as the Big West regular-season champion. Cal was awarded an at-large bid and a No. 2 seed in the eight-team quadrant of the WBIT bracket.

• UH will make its third straight postseason appearance. It's the program's eighth under head coach Laura Beeman, and 19th overall. The 'Bows made eight appearances in the NCAA Tournament, including the last two seasons, and 10 in the Women's National Invitation Tournament and are part of the inaugural WBIT field.

•  UH went 17-3 in Big West play, winning its final seven regular-season games, to claim the regular-season title for the second time in the last three seasons and secure a berth in the WBIT.

• The 'Bows reached the 20-win mark for the 17th time in program history and fourth time in Beeman's 12-year tenure at UH.

• UH is 6-20 in postseason play overall and last won a game in a postseason tournament in 2001 when the 'Bows went 3-1 in the WNIT and advanced to the semifinals.
 
• UH last won a postseason game on the continent in the 1992 WNIT with two victories in Amarillo, Texas. The 'Bows' last victory in a true postseason road game came in the 1990 NCAA Tournament with a win at Montana.

• Cal is the fourth Pac-12 team UH will face this season. The 'Bows lost at Stanford in a season-opening road trip to Northern California. They fell at home to Washington and dropped a road game at UCLA to close the non-conference schedule.
 
• UH is coming off a loss to UC Davis on March 15 in the semifinals of the Big West Championship in Henderson, Nev. Cal went 1-1 in the Pac-12 Women's Basketball Tournament, routing Washington State in the first round before falling to No. 2 Stanford in the quarterfinals.

• The winner of Thursday's game will face Saint Joseph's or Seton Hall in the second round on March 24.

• Five UH opponents this season earned berths in the NCAA Tournament or WBIT — Stanford (NCAA), UCLA (NCAA), Washington (WBIT), Santa Clara (WBIT) and UC Irvine (NCAA).

• Thursday will mark UH's 17^th day on the road. The team departed Honolulu on March 5 in advance of a two-game road trip to CSUN and CSU Bakersfield to close the Big West regular season.

• The 'Bows continued on to Henderson, Nev., for the Big West Championship and remained in Nevada following the conference tournament for Sunday's announcement of the WBIT field.

• They practiced in Las Vegas on Monday and traveled to Oakland on Tuesday.

• The trip is the program's longest since 2019 when the 'Bows finished the regular-season on the road, advanced to the final of the Big West Championship in Anaheim, Calif., then traveled to Saint Mary's for the WNIT.

• The game will be a homecoming of sorts for UH guard Ashley Thoms. The Rainbow Wahine senior is originally from Lafayette, Calif., about 13 miles from Berkeley, and graduated from Campolindo High School in nearby Moraga.

• The Rainbow Wahine and Golden Bears meet for the 11th time in a series that began on Jan. 14, 1977, a 47-41 Cal victory in Honolulu.

• UH has played at California just once before in program history, a 71-40 loss in Berkeley on Jan. 4, 1978.

• UH and Cal last met in the 2014 Bank of Hawai'i Rainbow Wahine Classic in Honolulu. The 14^th-ranked Bears held off the 'Bows 79-72 in UH's home opener. Shawna-Lei Kuehu posted career highs of 29 points and 15 rebounds in the loss.

• Cal is making its first postseason appearance since 2019 when the Bears were a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

• Fifth-year Cal coach Charmin Smith led the Bears to their highest win total overall and in Pac-12 play since the 2018-19 season.

• Cal ended the regular season tied with Washington State for eighth place in the Pac-12 standings. The Bears defeated WSU in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament then fell to No. 2 Stanford.

Four members of the Rainbow Wahine program received postseason recognition as part of The Big West 2023-24 All-Conference Team announced on Tuesday.

•  Laura Beeman was voted Coach of the Year for the third time in her UH career and the second time in the last three seasons after leading the Rainbow Wahine to the Big West regular-season championship. Beeman picked up the 200th victory of her UH career in the regular-season finale at CSU Bakersfield.

•  Guard Daejah Phillips was named the conference's Best Sixth Player for the second time and represented the Rainbow Wahine on the All-Big West first team.

•  Guard Lily Wahinekapu made the All-Big West second team after closing the regular season as UH's leading scorer overall (11.6 points per game) and in Big West games (13.0 ppg).

•  Forward Imani Perez earned a spot on the All-Big West second team and All-Defensive Team. The 6-foot-4 sophomore averaged 9.6 points while shooting a team-high 58.3 percent from the field overall. She also led the team with 29 blocked shots and her average of 1.2 per game ranked third in the conference.

• The NCAA announced the creation of the Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament in July 2023.

• With the addition of the 32-team event, 100 postseason NCAA-funded opportunities are available for Division I women's basketball teams, equal to that of men's basketball through its two events (the 68-team championship and 32-team National Invitation Tournament).

• The WBIT committee seeded only the top half of the 32-team field. The remaining 16 teams were placed into the bracket by the WBIT Committee as close to their area of natural interest as possible.

• First-round play is scheduled for Thursday, March 21, with the second round set for March 24. Quarterfinals will be held on March 28 with four teams advancing to Hinkle Fieldhouse on the campus of Butler University for the semifinals on Monday, April 1. The WBIT will conclude with the inaugural championship game on Wednesday, April 3.

• Preliminary WBIT games will be broadcast on ESPN+, while the semifinals will be on ESPNU, and the finals will be on ESPN2. Additional WBIT information can be found on ncaa.com/WBIT.

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