LAWRENCE, Kan. – The 2025-26 Kansas women’s basketball season will continue in the postseason after the Jayhawks accepted a bid to compete in the 2026 Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT). The tournament field and bracket for the WBIT were announced on Sunday night.
Kansas has received a No. 2 seed for the WBIT, giving the Jayhawks the opportunity to host Troy in the first round on Thursday, March 19, at Allen Fieldhouse. Kansas will compete in the postseason for the fourth time in the past five seasons, which includes NCAA Tournament appearances in 2022 and 2024. In its last non-NCAA Tournament postseason event, the Jayhawks won six consecutive home games to win the 2023 WNIT, which culminated with a 66-59 victory over Columbia in front of 11,701 fans at Allen Fieldhouse.
Now in its third year of existence, the WBIT is a 32-team, single elimination tournament that will be played on campus sites for the first three rounds. The semifinals and finals will be played at Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kansas. The WBIT postseason tournament is owned and funded by the NCAA.
Kansas enters the postseason with a record of 19-13, which includes an 8-10 mark in the Big 12. The Jayhawks went 1-1 in the Big 12 Tournament, defeating UCF 56-35 in the first round before falling to Colorado 55-48 in the second round. The Jayhawks are led by a pair of All-Big 12 First Team selections in Jaliya Davis and S’Mya Nichols. Davis, the Big 12 Freshman of the Year, is averaging 19.9 points and 6.5 rebounds per game, while Nichols averages 17.3 points per contest and leads the nation with 211 free throws made this season.
From Troy, Alabama, the Troy Trojans are 25-7 after finishing second in the Sun Belt Conference with a 15-3 league record. Troy advanced to the championship game of the Sun Belt Tournament, where they lost 69-52 to James Madison. Senior forward Zay Dyer is the Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year and a first team all-conference selection, averaging a double-double of 11.7 points and 13.0 rebounds per game to lead the Trojans.
Tickets for KU’s first-round game vs. Troy will go on sale Monday, March 16, at 10 a.m. CT and can be purchased by visiting KUAthletics.com or calling 800-34-HAWKS.
The top seeds for the WBIT include BYU, Texas A&M, North Dakota State and Utah. The first four teams out of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship, as determined by the tournament committee, received automatic bids and the top seeds. Kansas is joined in the field by a trio of Big 12 teams in BYU, Utah and Kansas State.
ESPN will serve as the television broadcast partner for all WBIT games, with ESPN+ airing preliminary round games, while the semifinals will air on ESPNU and the finals on ESPN2.
