NIT Returns to ESPN on Tuesday; Bill Walton Assigned to Stanford

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The National Invitation Tournament is back to allow 32 teams that didn’t make the NCAA Tournament an opportunity to have some postseason play.

The ESPN family of networks will air the entire tournament culminating with the semifinals and finals at Madison Square Garden on April 2 and April 4, respectively. Bob Wischusen will call the games at MSG. He’ll be joined by Bill Raftery for the semis and Bob Knight on the final.

In addition, we have more Bill Walton. His assignments for ESPN are not done yet. He’ll work the Stephen F. Austin-Stanford game with Dave Flemming on Tuesday for ESPN2.

Let’s take a look at what we have for the first round of the NIT on the ESPN family.

Alabama, Kentucky, Southern Mississippi and Virginia among 32 to Play in NIT across ESPN Networks

Exclusive coverage of the entire 76^th National Invitation Tournament (NIT) begins on Tuesday, March 19, at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN, and continues across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN3 with coverage of all 31 games. In addition to 5 exclusive ESPN3 games during the first round, every game will be available on WatchESPN.

The NIT Semifinal games from Madison Square Garden will air on ESPN2, Tuesday, April 2,beginning at 7 p.m., and The NIT Championship will follow on Thursday, April 4 at 9 p.m. on ESPN. Play by play commentator Bob Wischusen will be joined by analysts Bill Raftery for the semifinals and Bob Knight for the final game of the tournament.

The 32-team field for the oldest tournament in college basketball was announced Sunday, March 17, during the ESPNU NIT Selection Show and includes teams representing 22 conferences, led by the ACC, Pac-12 and SEC with three selections each. First Round action airs from campus sites with the No.1 seeds Alabama, Southern Mississippi and Virginia competing at home. Defending National Champions, Kentucky, also joins the field as a No. 1 seed, but will play on the road at Robert Morris in Pittsburgh – Coach Calipari’s hometown – due to the unavailability of Rupp Arena.

Seven teams in the 2013 field played in the 2012 tournament, including the defending NIT Champions, Stanford. Three teams are making their first appearance in the tournament – Charleston Southern, Mercer and Norfolk State. St. John’s is making its 29^th appearance, the most all time. Eight teams in this year’s field have previously won an NIT title, including St. John’s, which has won a record six championships. Stanford has a chance to join St. John’s (1943, 1944) and South Carolina (2005, 2006) as the only teams to repeat.

2013 NIT First Round Schedule:

Date	Time (ET)	Game	Network
Tue, March 19	7 p.m.	NIT First Round: Niagara at Maryland Mike Patrick & LaPhonso Ellis	ESPN2
	7 p.m.	NIT First Round: St. John’s at Saint Joseph’s Mike Crispino & Bob Valvano	ESPNU
	7:15 p.m.	NIT First Round: Louisiana Tech at Florida State Rich Hollenberg & Paul Biancardi	ESPN3
	7:30 p.m.	NIT First Round: Kentucky at Robert Morris Bob Wischusen, Jimmy Dykes & Allison Williams	ESPN
	9 p.m.	NIT First Round: Northeastern at Alabama John Saunders & Bob Knight	ESPN2
	9 p.m.	NIT First Round: Norfolk State at Virginia Mitch Holthus & Cory Alexander	ESPNU
	9:15 p.m.	NIT First Round: Ohio at Denver Mark Neely & Corey Williams	ESPN3
	9:30 p.m.	NIT First Round: Washington at BYU Roxy Bernstein & Sean Farnham	ESPN
	11 p.m.	NIT First Round: Stephen F. Austin at Stanford Dave Flemming & Bill Walton	ESPN2
Wed, March 20	7 p.m.	NIT First Round: Indiana State at Iowa Carter Blackburn and Dan Dakich	ESPN2
	7:15 p.m.	NIT First Round: Charlotte at Providence Jason Benetti & Tim Welsh	ESPN3
	7:15 p.m.	NIT First Round: Stony Brook at UMass Doug Sherman & Malcolm Huckaby	ESPN3
	8 p.m.	NIT First Round: Mercer at Tennessee John Saunders & Bob Knight	ESPNU
	9 p.m.	NIT First Round: Long Beach State at Baylor Mark Jones & Fran Fraschilla	ESPN2
	9:15 p.m.	NIT First Round: Charleston Southern at Southern Mississippi Roy Philpott & Joe Dean	ESPN3
	10 p.m.	NIT First Round: Detroit at Arizona State Joe Davis & Miles Simon	ESPNU

That’s it for this post.

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