The National Invitational Tournament isn’t the NCAA Tournament. It’s a consolation bracket meant to reward teams that showed improvement over the course of a hard-fought year and low-key mock the ones who fell from the rankings and into the dregs of Division I.
That doesn’t mean it’s not a backdrop for great basketball. The NIT often boils down to senior-led teams battling to end their careers on a high note. This year should provide plenty of David vs. Goliath moments as a handful of big name programs drop into the tournament to face the small schools who’ll have to downgrade their Cinderella dreams to a softer spotlight.
The 32-team bracket includes a handful of automatic bids in addition to the at-large teams announced Sunday night. Any team that won its conference’s regular season championship but not its conference tournament has a spot waiting for it in the NIT if the NCAA Tournament opts not to award an at-large invitation. This year’s crop of automatic bids went to:
