Indiana State & Belmont Get ‘Invited’

(St. Louis, MO) – With the ‘big dance’ out the the question, Indiana State (Missouri Valley Conference) and Belmont University (Ohio Valley Conference) will have their seasons continue because they got invited to the National Invitation Tournament. Both play opening round games tonight (Tuesday).

Indiana State (23-10) is going into post season play for the fifth straight year and for the fourth straight under Head Coach Greg Lansing. The Sycamores will battle Arkansas (21-11) and that unique ’40 minutes of hell’ defense employed by the Razorbacks.

The 23 wins accumulated this season are the most by a Sycamore team since the historic 1979 – Larry Bird year of 33 wins. ISU has not won a post-season game since 2001, having lost an opening round contest in each of the existing tournaments over the past four years.

For Belmont (24-9) the NIT is a disappointment. The Bruins are accustomed to playing in the NCAA tournament. Prior to this season only Belmont, Kansas and Memphis had earned six automatic bids to that tournament in the last eight years. That streak was snapped when Eastern Kentucky de-throned the Bruins at Music City Madness.

Head Coach Rick Byrd’s team travels to Wisconsin-Green Bay (24-6).

Both teams bring their respective league’s Player of the Year to the game. J.J. Mann earned that award in the OVC and Phoenix guard Keifer Sykes picked up the hardware in the Horizon League.

Both NIT games can be found on the ESPN family of networks.

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