Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 12, 1990 TAG: 9003123037
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Associated Press reports
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
The Dukes (20-10), who lost to Richmond in the final of the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament, will play host to New Orleans (19-10) in the opening round Wednesday night.
DePaul (18-14), considered a possible NCAA Tournament team after beating Notre Dame for the second time Saturday, also was bypassed. Instead, the Blue Demons will entertain Creighton (21-11) on Friday night in a first-round NIT game.
The Missouri Valley Conference, Pacific 10, Atlantic 10 and Southeastern conferences will send three teams each to the NIT.
In other NIT openers Wednesday, Marquette (15-13) is at Penn State (21-8) and Tennessee (15-13) visits Memphis State (18-11).
On Thursday, Massachusetts (17-13) visits Maryland (18-13), Baylor (16-13) is at Mississippi State (15-13), Louisiana Tech (20-7) travels to Vanderbilt (16-14), Wisconsin-Green Bay (21-7) visits Southern Illinois (26-7), Stanford (18-11) is at Hawaii (23-9), Tulsa (17-12) travels to Oklahoma State (16-13) and Southern (25-5) is at Fordham (19-12).
The remainder of the field will play first-round games Friday, with Holy Cross (24-5) visiting Rutgers (16-16), Oregon (15-13) traveling to New Mexico (17-12), Bowling Green (18-10) visiting Cincinnati (19-13), Kent State (21-7) traveling to St. Louis (17-11) and Long Beach State (22-8) visiting Arizona State (15-15).
St. John's won the NIT in 1989 and Connecticut was the champion in 1988. Both teams are in the NCAA Tournament this year.
New Mexico will make it seventh consecutive NIT appearance, breaking the record of six by Providence from 1959-64.
Long Beach State found out at halftime Sunday that it would need a victory over Nevada-Las Vegas in the Big West Conference final to make the NCAA Tournament.
Word reached both teams during the intermission that Cal-Santa Barbara, a 20-8 team upset by Pacific in the Big West's second round, would go to the NCAA Tournament unless Long Beach State won.
With their chance for the school's first tournament appearance since 1977 at stake, the 49ers fell behind 61-45 with 11:55 to play after the Rebels scored 15 straight points.
"I'm just totally devastated by it," coach Joe Harrington said of the NCAA snub. "I can handle it, but I'm mostly disappointed for our players."
by CNB