Those who can't wait until Thursday for a large dose of college basketball can get their fix sooner with the National Invitation Tournament.
Play begins today at nine campus sites in the less-prestigious of the two postseason tournaments. Seven more games will be held Thursday.Today's matchups are Georgia Tech (16-12) at Siena (21-7), DePaul (16-11) at Northwestern (14-13), Miami, Ohio (19-10) at Xavier, Ohio (20-7), North Carolina Charlotte (16-12) at Duquesne (16-12), Murray State (23-5) at Bradley (21-7), Tulane (17-10) at Evansville (21-10), Texas A&M (19-10) at New Orleans (19-9), Vanderbilt (16-11) at Oklahoma (15-12) and Southern Cal (16-11) at Fresno State (19-10).
Murray State has the best record of the 16 NIT teams, but the Racers must play at an arena where Bradley has won 19 straight homes games and five consecutive postseason games.
Bradley is rebounding from a steep decline following the end of Hersey Hawkins' career in 1988.
"This is a big step for our program," Braves coach Jim Molinari said. "This gets us back into the national scene. Everybody sees on TV that we're in the NIT and they say, `Hey! Bradley. That was a great program. They must have started coming back a little bit.' "
The 1993-94 squad is led by sophomore forward Deon Jackson with a 13.7 average, and freshman guard Anthony Parker, 11.1.
Murray State was an NIT team in 1989, then made the NCAA field the next three years. This year, the Racers are an up-tempo, high-scoring squad. They are averaging 91.2 points a game, fifth best in the country.
North Carolina Charlotte is aiming to contain Duquesne forward Derrick Alston and freshman guard Tom Pipkins in its first-round game.
Charlotte will see a more conservative Duquesne defense than the squad it beat by 23 points in early December. After that loss and a 32-point loss to Penn State a few days later, Duquesne coach John Carroll abandoned his risky full-court pressure in favor of the slower-paced matchup zone.
Bragging rights in Chicago will be a consideration when DePaul faces Northwestern.
"No question DePaul is looked up to as the program (in Chicago) to beat and not us, right now," said Northwestern coach Ricky Byrdsong. "Clearly we are hunting, and they are the hunted. It would be a bigger win for us than I'm sure they would feel it would be for them."
Northwestern, which beat Michigan last week for its first winning season in 11 years, is thankful to the Greatful Dead for its home game.
With the much larger Rosemont Horizon - DePaul's home arena - booked for a Dead show, the game will be played at the 8,117-seat Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston.