NCAA investment in a second women’s basketball tournament emerges as a big hit in Indy

By MICHAEL MAROT
AP Sports Writer

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The surging interest in women’s college basketball prompted the NCAA to double down on its investment last summer by backing the inaugural Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament. It already appears to be paying off. With Wednesday night’s championship game between fourth-seeded Illinois and top-seeded Villanova looming, the event that has supplanted the WNIT as the second-biggest women’s postseason tournament has gotten rave reviews from the four teams that made it to Indianapolis for the semifinal round.