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Ready. Set. Go!

This is exactly what it will be like on Sunday night after Lauren Flaum, Arizona women’s basketball’s director of operations learns — along with the rest of us — where the Wildcats will be playing in the postseason.

There are two options. One, the Wildcats earn an NCAA Tournament bid and most likely leave on Tuesday morning to a-yet-to-be-announced destination to play in a First Four game on Thursday.

Or, based on the movement in the last week, the Wildcats will make the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT), which is the NCAA’s secondary postseason tournament.

Over the last few weeks, Arizona has been on the bubble of making the NCAA Tournament with a résumé that looks like this: upsetting then-No. 16 ranked West Virginia, winning the last four games of the regular season, holding teams to 62.8 points per game and 39.7% field goal defense. They held 12 Big 12 opponents under their season scoring average.

However, not securing win No. 20 against Colorado in the Big 12 Tournament and even more importantly, the upsets in many mid-major league tournaments — we’re looking at you Oregon State, San Diego State, North Texas and others — causing mayhem, have in all certainty left the Wildcats on the outside of the field of 68.

Still, nothing is a done deal until the NCAA holds its Selection Sunday special at 5 p.m. on ESPN. The WBIT holds its’ selection show on at 6 p.m.

Just a few days ago, Arizona coach Adia Barnes and Flaum were looking at things in the most practical way.

Flaum said: “I was talking to our GAs and our managers and I said, ‘hey guys, this is the time of year you get to do things. You don’t have to do anything. For Adia to do the job that she’s done, and our coaches to put us in a situation for the WBIT speaks volumes about what they’ve done. Outside of them, you’ve got to give all the credit to the players. It’s a long season. It’s a grind and they just continue to work hard.

“Between the two tournaments (NCAA, WBIT) there are 100 teams that play. There are 351 teams in Division l. Less than one-third of our counterparts have an opportunity to prepare for postseason and we have an opportunity to do it at a high level with a young group. Just to have the opportunity to continue playing and get to do what we get to do, whether it’s for one more game or five more games is something special.’�

UA’s will be playing in the postseason for the fifth consecutive time and sixth in seven years. It would be 7 for 7 if COVID-19 hadn’t shut down the world in 2020. Arizona would have made the NCAA Tournament that season and were in line to host the first two rounds.

Once the Wildcats learn when and where their next game will be played, that’s when everything goes at warp speed. It becomes a long 24-plus hours for Flaum and others in Arizona Athletics.

If the Wildcats make the NCAAs, they are focused on lining up the charter, the hotel, as well as bus transportation and food.

The NCAA and host cities help Flaum with some of the logistics, plus they use a program called Teamworks that houses all the information. Flaum said they had already uploaded the flight manifest this past week.

Still, things don’t always go as smoothly as you’d think. Last year in Storrs, Conn., the hotel that was supposed to house UA pulled out of the contract at the last minute. It took some time — later in the day on Monday — to find another suitable hotel in the area, albeit 45 minutes to an hour away. This also provided challenges in terms of practice times and shoot-arounds.

Hosting expertise

If the Wildcats make the WBIT as a host, the ball gets rolling on a number of things at once.

With UA being a well-oiled machine at hosting numerous postseason events over the years – including the first and second round of the NCAAs in 2022 and the WNIT in 2019, as well as NCAAs for softball and baseball – each department starts doing their thing from parking, tickets, facilities, etc. Emails go out to season ticket holders, volunteers are lined up, as well as food vendors.

The preparation began well before Sunday’s announcement, from lining up the broadcasters for the ESPN+ feed to determining practice times for the opponents.

Flaum is quick to give credit to everyone around her — facilities, marketing, ticketing, communications, as well as the coaches and the players — for what’s about to unfold.

One noticeable difference between a WBIT game and a regular home game will be the NCAA signage, floor decals and a few other things around McKale Center.

For Flaum, who has been in the business for 15 years, she already has a checklist that constantly gets updated. She keeps it in her Notes app on her phone, so it’s readily available. She calls it “her best friend.�

“I have gone off that for a couple of years now,� Flaum said. “I just add things and take away things. For me, it’s the little things. Especially if you are hosting.�

The very first call Flaum makes is to the visiting team’s director of operations to help them with everything they need once they arrive in Tucson. Last week, Flaum and Ashley Summerset, UA’s Associate Director of Event Operations, put together a visiting team guide – sort of a cheat sheet on Tucson and UA – with everything from the hotels, the practice time the day before the game to parking and shootaround on game day.

It’s a total team effort as Flaum works closely with Summerset, UA’s Assistant AD of Creative Services John Daley, UA’s women’s sports administrator Kristen Arquilla, as well as others internally.

She’ll also call Si Charro (parent of El Charro, The Monica, Charro Steak & del Rey, Charrovida and Charro Chico) to line up the pre-game meals for the team.

For the coaches, it’s time for scouting not only the team the Wildcats will face in the first round, but also the possibilities for the second round. This assignment is split up among assistants Salvo Coppa, Bett Shelby and Anthony Turner just as it is all season long. Barnes also watches film on the first-round opponent.

Sixteen teams will host the WBIT. The first four out of the NCAAs will take the No. 1 seeds. UA would get an at-large bid and the games will stay regionalized and at the higher seeds until the semis and finals, which will be held in historic Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Taking a look at who would be eligible — if they accept the bid — in the West, UA could play the likes of Stanford and Colorado, plus a number of mid-majors who won their league title but were upset in the league tournament — including UNLV and Portland. NAU (26-7) is also a possibility.

“I think it’s an unbelievable opportunity for us as it is a NCAA-sponsored event,� Flaum said. “I know watching it last year, it was super successful. Illinois went on a great run and it gave them momentum into this year. It was huge for their program, which I know in 2019 when Arizona won the WNIT it really was a springboard for not just the success of the program since then, but in building the fan base, as well.�