-- NIT Bracket
-- Head Coach Dave Rose Quotes
PROVO -- After finishing the regular season as the nation's most improved team under first-year coach Dave Rose, BYU will return to postseason tournament play after a one-year absence, receiving a No. 6 seed in the 2006 National Invitation Tournament on Sunday.
The BYU Cougars (20-8) will face the No. 3-seeded Houston Cougars (20-9), Rose's alma mater, on Wednesday in Houston at 7:30 p.m. CST in Hofheinz Pavilion. The game is not being televised. The winner of Wednesday's game will advance to a second-round contest on Monday vs. No. 2-seed Missouri State, No. 7-seed Stanford or No. 8-seed Virginia.
Houston finished fourth in Conference USA with a 9-5 record before losing to No. 5-ranked Memphis in the conference tournament semifinals on Friday. This will be the sixth meeting between BYU and Houston and the first matchup since Houston defeated BYU in the Marriott Center during the 1996 Cougar Classic. The prior outing was a BYU win at the 1978 Pillsbury Holiday Classic. Houston leads the overall series, 3-2, including a win in the only game in Houston in 1967. The series began with a BYU win in Provo in 1965.
The Mountain West Conference and USBWA District VIII Coach of the Year, Rose will face his alma mater for the first time after turning a team picked to finish last in the MWC into a second-place finisher with a 20-8 record overall in his first season. Rose was a shooting guard at Houston from 1980-83, playing on the team's famed "Phi Slamma Jamma" squad with Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler that was ranked No. 1 before finishing as the national runner-up to North Carolina State in 1983.
BYU will be appearing in its 10th NIT. The Cougars have a 12-7 NIT record, including two NIT titles (1951 and 1966). BYU last played in the NIT in 2002, defeating UC Irvine in the Marriott Center before a second-round loss at Memphis. BYU's prior years playing in the NIT were 1951, 1953, 1954, 1966, 1982, 1986, 1994 and 2000.
BYU finished the regular season as the nation's most improved team over last year in total games (+12.5) and winning percentage (.741 in 2006 from .300 in 2005). BYU is making its fifth postseason appearance in the last six years, with three NIT invites (2000, 2002, 2006) and three NCAA bids (2001, 2003, 2004). Last year BYU finished 9-21. Overall, this season marks the Cougars' 31st postseason-tournament invitation.
The Cougars tied for second with Air Force in the Mountain West Conference with a 12-4 record, one game behind league-champion San Diego State. The Cougars were upset by Utah, 74-70, in the MWC Tournament Quarterfinals Thursday at the Pepsi Center in Denver. MWC Tournament Champion San Diego State and Air Force received NCAA bids Sunday. BYU is the only MWC team to earn an invitation into the first-ever NCAA-owned NIT field.
Under the new ownership of the NCAA, the 40-team NIT field was selected by a six-member committee comprised of former Division I men's basketball head coaches, including Hall of Famers Dean Smith and C.M. Newton, who served as chair, along with Don DeVoe, Reggie Minton, Jack Powers and Carroll Williams.
"We assembled a committee that brings with them boundless amounts of expertise and integrity," Newton said.
The regular-season champion from each of the 31 Division I conferences not invited to the NCAA Tournament was guaranteed an NIT berth for the first time, assuring quality and integrity in the selection process.
"The committee was unanimous in its view on this matter," Newton said. "It formalizes what postseason basketball should be -- a reward for success throughout the regular season."
For the first time in the NIT, the committee seeded 10 teams in each of the bracket's four corners. The four No. 1 seeds included Louisville, Cincinnati, Michigan and Maryland.
The opening-round games pit No. 9 and No. 10 seeds, with the winners advancing to face a No. 1 seed in the first round, and the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds competing to play a No. 2 seed. Other first-round games match No. 3 seeds vs. No. 6 seeds and No. 4 seeds against No. 5 seeds. Also new this year, higher-seeded teams will host games as they advance, unless extenuating logistical circumstances (i.e., travel, lodging and/or facility availability or NCAA Championship guidelines) preclude such an opportunity. The committee also decided that a winning record was not a prerequisite for teams to qualify for the postseason tournament.
The NIT will tip off on March 14 with opening- and first-round play. Second-round action commences on March 17 and the quarterfinals begin on March 21, also on campus sites.
Continuing with a tradition now in its 69th year, the championship round will take place at New York's Madison Square Garden with the semifinal doubleheader on March 28 and the championship game on March 30.
The committee selected the 2006 NIT field during its meetings in Indianapolis from March 9-12, culminating with the first-ever live television (ESPNU) release of the tournament bracket on Sunday evening. The National Invitation Tournament is overseen by the NIT, LLC, which is owned by the NCAA.