Seven teams that won 20 or more games and were snubbed by the NCAA were selected Sunday night to the field for the National Invitation Tournament.
Ball State, Fairleigh Dickinson, Siena, Fordham, Southwest Missouri State, Arkansas State and Furman all broke the 20-win barrier and head the 32-team NIT field.Fordham, 24-7, will open the NIT at South Florida, 17-10, which finished in third place in the Sun Belt Conference, on Thursday night.
Ball State, 21-9 and the second-place team in the Mid-American Conference, plays at Cincinnati, 17-11 and a third-place finisher in the Metro Conference, Wednesday night.
Farleigh Dickinson, 22-8, and tied atop the Northeast Conference standings with St. Francis, opens the tournament at Metro-Atlantic Conference titlist Siena, 23-9, on Thursday night.
Southwest Missouri State, 21-11, which finished in second place in the Missouri Valley conference, hosts Coppin State, 19-10, the Mid-eastern Conference champion, on Thursday.
Arkansas State, 21-8 and at 9-3 a third-place finisher in the American Conference, meets Rice, 16-13, in Houston on Thursday.
Furman, 20-8 overall, finished in a three-way tie for first place in the Southern Conference with East Tennessee State and Tennessee Chattanooga, all with 11-3 records. East Tennessee State received an NCAA bid and Tennessee-Chattanooga was left out of both tournaments. Furman travels to West Virginia, 16-13, on Friday for its opening round NIT game.
In other NIT games Wednesday night, James Madison, 19-9, plays at Providence, 17-12; Bowling Green, 17-12, travels to Wisconsin, 14-14; Boise State, 18-10, hosts Southern Illinois, 16-13; Michigan, 14-14, is at Colorado, 15-13; and Stanford, 15-13, entertains Houston, 18-10.
Thursday night Alabama-Birmingham, 18-12, takes on Memphis State, 16-14, on the Tigers' court and Tulsa, 18-11, faces Oklahoma, 16-14, at Norman.
South Carolina, 19-12, plays George Washington, 19-11, at Columbia, S.C.; LaSalle, 19-9, goes up against Massachusetts, 17-11, at Amherst, Mass., and Butler, 18-10, tackles Wyoming, 19-11, at Laramie, Wyo.