Colorado State, Saint Louis, Memphis and Ole Miss are the No. 1 seeds for the National Invitation Tournament.
The four second seeds are Richmond, Davidson, Saint Mary’s and Boise State.
Seeded third are Toledo, Western Kentucky, North Carolina State, and SMU, and the remainder of the field includes Buffalo, Dayton, Mississippi State and Louisiana Tech.
The top seeds open play Friday night, with Colorado State (18-6) facing Buffalo (16-8), and Ole Miss (16-11) taking on Louisiana Tech (21-7). On Saturday, Saint Louis (14-8) will play Mississippi State (15-14), and Memphis (16-7) will face Dayton (14-9).
The coronavirus pandemic reduced the field to 16 teams from the usual 32, and all games are set for Frisco and Denton, Texas. That will take the semifinals and championship game out of Madison Square Garden for the first time in the 83-year history of college basketball’s oldest postseason tournament. The NIT champion has been crowned in New York City every year since the tournament started in 1938.
First-round games will be played March 17-20, with the quarterfinals March 25. The semifinals are set for March 27, followed by the championship game the next day. Earlier rounds normally are held at the venues of designated home teams. The NCAA ranked the first four teams out of the NCAA tournament and they were on standby to replace any team from a multi-bid league that has to withdraw because of COVID-19 issues. Louisville, Colorado State, Saint Louis and Ole Miss were the first four out in that order.
Louisville could still get into the NCAA tournament if a team withdraws by Tuesday night due to COVID-19. It’s the only postseason option for the Cardinals after the program turned down a spot in the NIT.
After the NCAA tournament field was announced, Seton Hall and St. John’s of the Big East Conference were not selected and decided to end their seasons. Both finished 10-9 in the conference.
For the Red Storm, it wasn’t an easy decision.
“There is no question that in a normal year our university’s decision would be different as we would be honored to compete in the famed National Invitation Tournament, which our program has a long and storied history with an unprecedented 28 appearances and five championships,” St. John’s director of athletics Mike Cragg said in a statement. “However, this has been far from a normal year as there have been tremendous mental and physical demands on everyone in our basketball program due to extensive COVID-19 protocols dating back to July that have taken their toll.”
Last year’s cancellation because of COVID-19 was the first in the event’s history. The Texas Longhorns won the most recent NIT in 2019.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.