University of Massachusets Athletics
UMass Faces Alabama Tuesday At 9:30 On ESPN In NIT Opening Round
March 11, 2007 | Men's Basketball
March 11, 2007
AMHERST, Mass. - No. 4 seed UMass will host No. 5 seed Alabama (20-11) in the opening round of the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) on Tuesday night at 9:30 p.m. The game will be televised live on ESPN. This will be the first time the two teams have met since 1965-66 and the first time UMass has qualified for postseason play since the 2000 NIT. Ticket information will be available on Monday and fans can call 1-866-UMass-TIX or check TicketMaster.com.
Ticket prices for Tuesday are as follows: $18 for adults, $15 for seniors, $10 for children and $5 for all students.
"We are thrilled to be playing in what I consider to be the strongest NIT field of all time. To have a team of Alabama's caliber coming to the Mullins Center is great for us," said head coach Travis Ford. "Alabama started the season 13-1 and was ranked as high as fourth nationally showing what type of program they have. I am friends with their coach Mark Gottfried and we have known each other for a long team. Similar to our team their two best players are post players in Richard Hendrix and Jermareo Davidson."
The winner will face the winner of the West Virginia/Delaware State on March 15 at 9 p.m. with the game being televised on ESPNU.
At 23-8 overall, UMass was the Atlantic 10 Regular Season Co-Champion alongside Xavier. The Minutemen ended the season with a 9-1 mark before falling to Saint Louis in the opening round of the A-10 Tournament.
Alabama lost in the first round of the SEC Tournament to Kentucky 79-67. The two teams share one other common opponent this season in Xavier which the Tide defeated in late November. Alabama was ranked as high as No. 4 nationally after starting out 7-0. The Tide were ranked 11th in the preseason poll.
UMass is 0-1 all-time against Alabama and will play them for the first time since the 1965-66 season. The two schools met that season in the VPI (Virginia Tech) Tournament in Blacksburg, Va., with Alabama winning 79-73.
This will be the 10th all-time appearance for UMass in the NIT. The Minutemen are 5-10 all-time in the tournament.
The last postseason appearance for UMass was the NIT in 2000 which was a 66-65 loss to Siena in Albany, N.Y. The Minutemen last hosted an NIT game in 1991 when UMass beat La Salle 93-90 in the Curry Hicks Cage
This will be just the second time UMass has hosted an NIT game.
In 1991, UMass finished fourth in the NIT making the Final Four before losing to Stanford 73-71 and Colorado 98-91 (third-place game).
UMass' first-ever postseason win was a 78-71 win over Missouri in 1973.
The NIT First Round will be on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 13 and 14. The Second Round will be held on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday, March 15, 16, 17, and 19. The Quarterfinal Round will be held March 20 and 21. Each of these rounds will be at campus sites.
The NIT Final Four will begin on Tuesday, March 27 at Madison Square Garden in New York. The Championship Game will be held on Thursday, March 29.
For complete information and tournament brackets, visit www.NIT.org.