Utah
Postseason bound: Utah Valley men, BYU women each earn NIT bid
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OREM — Two native school basketball groups had their seasons prolonged Saturday night time after the NCAA Match choice announcement had wrapped up.
Utah Valley males’s basketball will play within the Nationwide Invitational Match for less than the second time in program historical past, and first time since 2014. The Wolverines (25-8) earned an automated bid to the 32-team match with their third regular-season championship within the Western Athletic Convention since becoming a member of the league.
The unseeded Wolverines will play Wednesday at No. 3 New Mexico. Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. MDT on ESPN+. The winner will face the winner of Colorado and Seton Corridor.
Sam Houston State, the No. 1 seed within the WAC Match, earned a No. 2 seed within the NIT and can open on Wednesday towards WCC foe Santa Clara. Oregon, which misplaced to Utah Valley 77-72 on its dwelling courtroom, drew a No. 1 seed and can open Wednesday towards UC Irvine on ESPN2.
Rutgers, Clemson and Oklahoma State additionally earned a No. 1 seed. Texas A&M received the NIT championship final yr.
For the primary time in match historical past, the semifinals and championship will likely be held at Orleans Area in Las Vegas, with all earlier rounds being held on campus.
“We’ll take a day or two to chill off, course of what occurred tonight, and study from it,” mentioned UVU coach Mark Madsen, whose group completed ranked No. 74 within the NET and No. 80 in KenPom, after his group’s loss to Southern Utah within the WAC Match semifinals. “I will make changes as a head coach that may assist put our guys in a greater state of affairs to complete off video games like this.
“We completely are going to play within the NIT, and we need to win a championship. We want a while to decompress, after which we’ll be again at it working.”
After its darkhorse run to the WCC Match semifinals, BYU (19-15) was not chosen for the NIT. It marks the primary time since 2019, and simply that the third time since 2000, that the Cougars haven’t performed within the NCAA or NIT tournaments.
There will likely be some Cougar illustration within the postseason, although. BYU ladies’s basketball earned an invite to the WNIT as one in every of 32 at-large alternatives. The Cougars (16-16) pulled a seed-line upset to get to the semifinals of the West Coast Convention Match earlier than a loss to top-seeded Gonzaga. Each the Zags and WCC Match champion Portland earned a berth within the NCAA Match.
San Diego (17-13) earned the automated bid from the WCC. The complete bracket will likely be introduced Monday, with opening spherical video games held March 15-17.
The semifinals are scheduled for March 28-29, with the championship recreation on Saturday, April 1 at 3:30 p.m. MDT on CBS Sports activities Community.
Southern Utah, whose try at its first NCAA Match look in 22 years got here up a recreation quick Saturday towards Grand Canyon, will open the Faculty Basketball Invitational (CBI) because the No. 4 seed towards Thirteenth-seeded North Alabama at 11 a.m. MT Saturday. All first- and second-round video games, that are performed in Daytona Seaside, Florida, are streamed on FloHoops earlier than the semifinals and remaining on ESPN2.