SMU lands in NIT, earns No. 1 seed vs. Northern Iowa
The SMU Mustangs will play on this season as Andy Enfield’s team earned an NIT bid in his first season on the Hilltop. On Sunday, it was announced SMU’s a 1-seed and will host Northern Iowa in the first round inside Moody Coliseum on Wednesday at 8 p.m. CT on ESPN2.
If the Mustangs win, they’ll face the winner of 4-seed Oklahoma State and Wichita State. Arkansas State, Saint Louis, North Texas and Furman are also in the Dallas region of the NIT.
After his first regular season and ACC Tournament with SMU, Enfield was proud of how his team performed. The Mustangs sit at 23-10 overall on the year.
“We really like our team,” Enfield said after SMU lost to Clemson in the ACC Tournament. “They’ve been just impressive young men, with 10 new players, came together. They’ve had a terrific season with winning on the road, winning on neutral courts and winning 23 games so far. So it’s been a lot of fun to coach these young men. They grew as a team. They grew as individuals. We’re a pretty good basketball team right now.”
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The first round of the NIT is Tuesday and Wednesday on campuses then it’s onto the second round Saturday and Sunday. The quarterfinals finish up March 25-26 on campuses then the tournament wraps up with its semifinals (April 1) and championship (April 3) in Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Because of new rules established last offseason, the ACC and SEC receive two automatic bids to the NIT (and the top-12 conferences after the SEC and ACC each receive one automatic bid). Those bids go to the top teams in each league that did not make the NCAA Tournament field. For the SEC and ACC, that means two teams left out of the Big Dance still get a chance to play on if they accept their invitation. All of these “exempt” teams will host the first round of the NIT, as well. South Carolina already declined its invitation though for the tournament.
Last year, SMU made the NIT and fell to Indiana State in the first round. That ended the Rob Lanier era and led to the Mustangs hiring Enfield away from USC.
