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DePaul,
St. Louis, UAB in NIT
NEW YORK (AP) � Six Big East schools, including Villanova and its
suspension-limited roster, head the 40-team field for the NIT, while
Conference USA is among five leagues with three entrants in the 65-year-old
tournament.
Memphis, a member of C-USA, was last year's champion but was precluded by
positive circumstances from having the chance to repeat. The Tigers were
extended a coveted invitation to the NCAA's Field of 64.
C-USA, along with the Atlantic 10, Atlantic Coast, Big Ten and Mountain
West, had three teams chosen for the NIT tournament which got under way
Monday night � with Iowa defeating Valparaiso 62-60 � and concludes with the
championship game at Madison Square Garden on April 3.
Villanova (15-15), which had 12 players suspended on March 9 for alleged
unauthorized use of a campus phone access code, will be limited to seven
players as it was in its final regular season game against Pittsburgh and
its Big East tournament opening-round game against Georgetown.
The other Big East teams selected were: Boston College (18-11), Georgetown
(15-14), Providence (16-13), Seton Hall (17-12) and St. John's (16-13).
Temple (15-15), Georgia Tech (14-14) and Virginia (15-15) were the other
teams in the field with the minimum .500 record.
Charleston (24-8) had the most wins of the teams in the field and was one of
eight school in with 20 or more victories.
In addition to Temple, Rhode Island (19-10) and Richmond (15-13) were from
the Atlantic 10, while Georgia Tech and Virginia were joined by fellow ACC
school North Carolina (17-15).
DePaul (16-12), Saint Louis (16-13) and UAB (19-12), which reached the
conference tournament championship game, were chosen from Conference USA,
while the Mountain West will have San Diego State (15-12), UNLV (20-10) and
Wyoming (21-10).
Minnesota (16-12), Ohio State (17-14), which reached the conference
championship game, and Iowa (15-13) were invited from the Big Ten.
The other 20-win teams were Boston University (20-10), Illinois Chicago
(21-8), Kent State (21-9), Valparaiso (20-10) and Louisiana-Lafayette
(20-8).
The other teams invited were: Eastern Washington (18-12), Cal Santa Barbara
(18-13), Iowa State (16-13), Texas Tech (18-12), Drexel (19-11), Brown
(17-11), Fairfield (19-11), Siena (19-11), Western Michigan (19-10),
Tennessee (17-11), Hawaii (19-11), Nevada (18-13) and Wichita State (18-11).
Copyright 2003
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
02/23/2007 10:47:56 AM
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