NEW YORK — The Ole Miss and Alabama men’s basketball teams accepted bids to the 81st version of the National Invitation Tournament on Sunday night.
Ole Miss (20-13) received a No. 5 seed and will play to No. 4 seed Monmouth (27-6) at 6 p.m. Tuesday in a first round game in West Long Branch, New Jersey. ESPN3 will televise the game.
Alabama (19-14) earned a No. 3 seed and will play host to Richmond (20-12) at 8:15 p.m. Tuesday at Coleman Coliseum. ESPN2 will televise the game.
Ole Miss and Alabama join Georgia in the NIT to give the Southeastern Conference eight teams in the postseason. Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina, and Vanderbilt earned spots in the NCAA tournament.
Tuesday’s matchup will be the first meeting between the Rebels and the Hawks. The winner will advance to play the winner of the game between No. 1 seed Syracuse and No. 8 UNC-Greensboro. If Ole Miss wins, the second-round game would be Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday.
The Rebels, who won 20 games for the ninth time under coach Andy Kennedy, are making their 12th NIT appearance, and sixth under Kennedy.
The Crimson Tide earned one of 22 at-large spots in the 32-team field. They will make their third-straight showing in the event, and fifth appearance in the last seven years.
The winner of that game will face the winner of the game between No. 2 seed Clemson and No. 7 seed Oakland at a time and date to be determined.
Iowa is the top seed in Alabama’s quadrant. California and Illinois State are the other No. 1 seeds in the NIT.
Syracuse provided some drama to the unveiling of the NIT field.
Four days after the Hall of Fame coach from Syracuse angered an entire city by saying there was “no value” in the Atlantic Coast Conference holding its postseason tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina, the Orange were matched up Sunday night against UNC Greensboro in the first round of the event.
Among the final few teams left out of the NCAA tournament, top-seeded Syracuse (18-14) will play host to the eighth-seeded Spartans (25-9) at the Carrier Dome on Tuesday night.
Reggie Minton, chair of the selection committee, insisted the NIT didn’t pair up the teams on purpose when the bracket was set.
“We didn’t even have that in our minds,” Minton said in an interview with ESPN during the tournament selection show. “We were matching teams against teams, not story lines against any other story lines, and it’s the way it played out.”
Minton said he was aware of Boeheim’s comment last week at the ACC tournament in Brooklyn, but “hadn’t thought of it since that time.”
Regardless, the city of Greensboro quickly chimed in on its Twitter account: “Kudos (hashtag) NIT on having a sense of humor. Well played!”
And a church organization in Greensboro is selling shirts that read, “Greensboro vs. Boeheim.”
Syracuse, a longtime national power, was disappointed to miss out on the NCAAs this season after beating three top-10 teams in Florida State, Virginia and Duke.
Last year, the Orange got in at 19-13 with a questionable resume and advanced all the way to the Final Four as a No. 10 seed. But if they’re going to make another deep run this March, it will come against lesser competition in the second-tier tournament.
“When you’re on the bubble you can miss, for whatever reason,” Boeheim said. “It’s heartbreaking because everything today is about the NCAA tournament. It’s not just us. There’s 20 broken-hearted teams out there that wish they had done one thing better.”
The bottom of Syracuse’s bracket includes two other former powers: Indiana is the No. 3 seed and will face sixth-seeded Georgia Tech in the opening round.
California, Iowa and Illinois State are the other No. 1 seeds in the 32-team field. Play begins Tuesday night, mostly on campus sites, and concludes with the semifinals and championship game at Madison Square Garden in late March.
“I thought we would just sneak into the (NCAA) tournament, but we have to accept it and move on,” Boeheim said. “We just have to get ready and try to play the best we can in the NIT.”
Minton said there were no schools that turned down an invite.
NOTE: General admission tickets are on sale for Alabama’s game against Richmond. All tickets will be delivered via Print at Home (email) to avoid Will Call lines on game day., All seats for the NIT are general admission, except courtside (front court and back court) and baseline seating areas. Ticket prices are as follows: $12 for courtside seats (front court and back court) and baseline reserved seats (those tickets are available only to regular-season courtside and baseline ticket holders); $10 for adult general admission seats; $4 for general admission tickets for youths age 18 and under; and $4 for Alabama students who present a valid I.D. Courtside and baseline season-ticket holders will receive an email Sunday evening (March 12) to reserve their floor seats online. Courtside and Baseline Season Ticket holders can also call the Ticket/TIDE PRIDE Office beginning at 8 a.m. today. Any remaining available courtside (front court and back court) and baseline reserved seats will go on sale to the general public at 8 a.m. Tuesday. Ticket sales by phone begins at 8 a.m. today by calling 205.348.2262. Fans can also purchase tickets at the Coleman Coliseum Ticket Office beginning at 9 a.m. today.
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