New York, NY – Kentucky, Alabama Southern Mississippi and Virginia were named as the top seeds for the 32-team National Invitation Tournament field on Sunday.
The top seeds will all host games except Kentucky, which will travel to Robert Morris. Alabama plays Northeastern, Southern Mississippi takes on Charleston Southern and Virginia clashes with Norfolk State.
Other first round games include Charlotte at Providence, Detroit at Arizona State, Long Beach State at Baylor, Louisiana Tech at Florida State, Washington at BYU, Mercer at Tennessee, Stephen F. Austin at Stanford, Ohio at Denver, Niagara at Maryland, St. John's at Saint Joseph's, Indiana State at Iowa, Stony Brook at Massachusetts.
First-round play is scheduled for Tuesday, March 19 and Wednesday, March 20, with the second round running March 21-25. The quarterfinals are on March 26 and 27 and four teams will advance to New York City for the semifinals on April 2. The NIT will conclude with the championship game on Thursday, April 4 at Madison Square Garden.
2012 NIT champion Stanford returns as does 2012 semifinalists Massachusetts and Washington. Seven teams in the field played in the NIT a year ago.
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