The NIT Tournament schedule for 2014 picks up on Tuesday and the start date for the college basketball National Invitational Tournament picks up with Southern Methodist aka SMU, Minnesota, Florida State and St. John's as the number one seeds and the finals finishes up at MSG and that will be coming after next week.
SMU was one of the top teams that did not make it into the NCAA tournament and March Madness and this came after the team was previously ranked and many were surprised that Larry Brown's squad did not make the cut as one of the 68 teams in the tourney field. In the overall NCAA Tournament, Florida, Arizona, Wichita State and Virginia made it in as the number one overall seeds and SMU ended up as the number one in the NIT after going 23-9 on the season and it would have been the first time the team has been back to the tournament in two decades and now they have to settle for the NIT.
The team opens with UC Irvine in the tournament and this comes after they lost to top teams in the AAC heading into the postseason in Louisville and Memphis and after falling to Houston in the American Athletic Conference tournament the team was left out. SMU wasn't helped by bad losses to South Florida and Temple during the season and now they are looking to get back on track after having three losses to end the season in a row. SMU went 15-1 at home for the season and they were 9-1 at Moody Coliseum and that put the team in position to make it into the postseason and Brown said they would grow from making it into the NIT tourney.
The 32 team field for the tournament has SMU as the number one seed and Minnesota will be playing against High Point in the first round. Some of the other games in the tournament includes Florida Gulf Coast playing against Florida State, while Georgia State and Clemson will go at it along with Belmont and Green Bay. West Virginia and Georgetown are playing as well and last year's surprise in Robert Morris will be playing against St. John's and Kentucky could tell the Storm to watch out for an upset after they won over the Wildcats last season.
The NIT is a very important tournament for teams that don't make it into the NCAA tournament and SMU now has the chance to be the top seed after last doing that back in 2000 and that will help make up for the snub in the NCAA tournament.
Check here for the full NIT Tournament bracket from ESPN.com and here for the NCAA bracket.