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Conference USA
sends four teams to NIT
By JIM O'CONNELL
AP Basketball Writer
Georgetown, Citing Class Interruptions, Turns Down Bid
The Atlantic 10, which had only
Xavier selected for the NCAA tournament, had five teams picked Sunday night
for the NIT's expanded 40-team field.
One name missing from the list
was Georgetown, which lost in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament
and finished 19-11.
Hoyas coach Craig Esherick said
Sunday night he just couldn't accept the invitation because his team was
going to be sent on the road and he didn't want his players missing classes.
``We wanted to play but didn't
want to play at all costs. We're in school now,'' he said. ``Last year we
spent two weeks out West and didn't want to do it again.''
The Hoyas were in the West
Regional of the NCAA tournament last season, playing two games in Boise,
Idaho, before losing to Maryland in the regional semifinal in Anaheim,
Calif.
``We couldn't use our home court,
the MCI Center, because it's the site of the NCAA tournament's first two
rounds this week,'' Esherick said. ``It got to the point that since we
couldn't have a home game we wanted to be playing closer to home to not miss
class. After a while I said `Look, maybe we're better off not doing it.''
NIT executive director Jack
Powers confirmed travel was the reason.
``They just could not work out
travel arrangements,'' he said Sunday night.
The only other team to ever turn
down an NIT bid was Louisville in 1987,
when the Cardinals were 18-14 a year after winning the national
championship.
Richmond, Saint Joseph's, St.
Bonaventure, Temple and Dayton were selected for the NIT, which gets under
way Tuesday night with five games. Through the first four rounds, all games
are played at campus sites.
The semifinals and championship
game are at New York's Madison Square Garden on March 26 and 28.
Conference USA was next with four teams — South Florida, Louisville, Memphis
and Houston — while the Big East, Mountain West and Southeastern
Conference each had three.
The Ivy League had two teams
selected, Princeton and Yale.
The addition of eight teams to
the field means eight opening-round games, with the winners moving into the
first round.
The opening-round games on
Tuesday have Montana State at Utah State; South
Florida at Ball State; and Saint Joseph's at George Mason. The
other opening-round games are Wednesday, with Wagner at Richmond;
Louisiana-Lafayette at Louisiana Tech; Houston
at Vanderbilt; Detroit at Dayton; and Georgia State at Tennessee Tech.
The first-round games to be
played Tuesday have Arizona State at UNLV and Princeton at
Louisville.
``If you
make it there, Madison Square Garden is probably the most exciting place to
play in college basketball,'' said first-year Louisville coach Rick Pitino,
who coached the NBA's New York Knicks in that building. ``It would be quite
an experience for us if we could get there.''
The other first-round matchups
are: St. Bonaventure at Syracuse; Bowling Green at Butler; New Mexico at
Minnesota; Louisiana State at Iowa; South Carolina at Virginia; Temple at
Fresno State; Manhattan at Villanova; Yale at Rutgers; Cal-Irvine at Brigham
Young; and North Carolina-Greensboro at Memphis.
The dates of the other
first-round games will be announced. The second round is scheduled for March
18 and 19, and the third-round games are March 20-22. Tulsa beat Alabama
79-60 in last year's championship game.
Copyright 2001
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Bonesville.net contributed to this
report.
02/23/2007 10:36:23 AM
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