2016 National Invitation Tournament

2016 National Invitation Tournament

Season	2015–16
Teams	32
Finals site	Madison Square Garden New York City
Champions	George Washington (1st title)
Runner-up	Valparaiso (1st title game)
Semifinalists	BYU (4th semifinal) San Diego State (2nd semifinal)
Winning coach	Mike Lonergan (1st title)
MVP	Tyler Cavanaugh (George Washington)
National Invitation Tournaments «2015 2017»

The 2016 National Invitation Tournament was a single-elimination tournament of 32 NCAA Division I teams that were not selected to participate in the 2016 NCAA Tournament. The annual tournament was played on campus sites for the first three rounds, with the Final Four and championship game being held at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The tournament began on Tuesday, March 15 and ended on Thursday, March 31. An experimental rule allowing players six personal fouls instead of five was approved for use in all national postseason tournaments except for the NCAA Tournament. The NIT Selection Show aired at 8:30 PM EDT on Sunday, March 13, 2016 on ESPNU.

Participants

Automatic qualifiers

The following fifteen teams earned automatic berths into the 2016 NIT field by virtue of having won their respective conference's regular season championship but failed to win their conference tournaments and did not receive an at-large NCAA bid.

Conference	Team	Appearance	Last bid
Atlantic Sun	North Florida	1st	—
Big South	High Point	2nd	2014
CAA	Hofstra	5th	2007
C-USA	UAB	12th	2010
Horizon	Valparaiso	3rd	2012
MAAC	Monmouth	1st	—
MAC	Akron	4th	2012
Mountain West	San Diego State	6th	2009
NEC	Wagner	3rd	2002
Ohio Valley	Belmont	3rd	2014
Patriot	Bucknell	3rd	2015
Summit	IPFW	1st	—
SWAC	Texas Southern	2nd	2011
WAC	New Mexico State	5th	2000
WCC	Saint Mary's	5th	2015

Seeds

The first four teams left out of the NCAA tournament were the top seeds in the four regions, as in last year's tournament. They were St. Bonaventure, South Carolina, Monmouth and Valparaiso.

St. Bonaventure/BYU Quadrant Seed School Conference Record Berth type 1 St. Bonaventure Atlantic 10 22–8 At-Large 2 BYU West Coast 23–10 At-Large 3 Virginia Tech ACC 19–14 At-Large 4 Creighton Big East 18–14 At-Large 5 Alabama SEC 18–14 At-Large 6 Princeton Ivy 22–6 At-Large 7 UAB C-USA 26–6 Automatic 8 Wagner Northeast 22–10 Automatic	South Carolina/San Diego State Quadrant Seed School Conference Record Berth type 1 South Carolina SEC 24–8 At-Large 2 San Diego State Mountain West 25–9 Automatic 3 Washington Pac-12 18–14 At-Large 4 Georgia Tech ACC 19–14 At-Large 5 Houston American 22–9 At-Large 6 Long Beach State Big West 20–14 At-Large 7 IPFW Summit 24–9 Automatic 8 High Point Big South 21–10 Automatic
Valparaiso/Saint Mary's Quadrant Seed School Conference Record Berth type 1 Valparaiso Horizon 26–6 Automatic 2 Saint Mary's West Coast 27–5 Automatic 3 Georgia SEC 19–13 At-Large 4 Florida State ACC 19–13 At-Large 5 Davidson Atlantic 10 20–12 At-Large 6 Belmont Ohio Valley 20–11 Automatic 7 New Mexico State WAC 23–10 Automatic 8 Texas Southern SWAC 18–14 Automatic	Monmouth/Florida Quadrant Seed School Conference Record Berth type 1 Monmouth MAAC 27–7 Automatic 2 Florida SEC 19–14 At-Large 3 Ohio State Big Ten 20–13 At-Large 4 George Washington Atlantic 10 23–10 At-Large 5 Hofstra Colonial 24–9 Automatic 6 Akron MAC 26–8 Automatic 7 North Florida Atlantic Sun 22–11 Automatic 8 Bucknell Patriot 17–13 Automatic

Schedule

The NIT began on Tuesday March 15. The first three rounds were played on campus sites. The Final Four began on Tuesday, March 29 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and ended there with the championship game on Thursday, March 31.

Bracket

^Florida was not able to host home games at the O'Connell Center due to arena renovations.

	First round					Second round					Quarterfinals
	1	Monmouth	90
	8	Bucknell	80
						1	Monmouth	71
						4	George Washington	87
	4	George Washington	82
	5	Hofstra	80
											4	George Washington	82
											2	Florida^	77
	2	Florida^	97
	7	North Florida	68
						2	Florida^	74
						3	Ohio State	66
	3	Ohio State	72*
	6	Akron	63

	First round					Second round					Quarterfinals
	1	St. Bonaventure	75
	8	Wagner	79
						8	Wagner	54
						4	Creighton	87
	4	Creighton	72
	5	Alabama	54
											4	Creighton	82
											2	BYU	88
	2	BYU	97
	7	UAB	79
						2	BYU	80
						3	Virginia Tech	77
	3	Virginia Tech	86*
	6	Princeton	81

	First round					Second round					Quarterfinals
	1	South Carolina	88
	8	High Point	66
						1	South Carolina	66
						4	Georgia Tech	83
	4	Georgia Tech	81
	5	Houston	62
											4	Georgia Tech	56
											2	San Diego State	72
	2	San Diego State	79
	7	IPFW	55
						2	San Diego State	93
						3	Washington	78
	3	Washington	107
	6	Long Beach State	102

	First round					Second round					Quarterfinals
	1	Valparaiso	84
	8	Texas Southern	73
						1	Valparaiso	81
						4	Florida State	69
	4	Florida State	84
	5	Davidson	74
											1	Valparaiso	60
											2	Saint Mary's	44
	2	Saint Mary's	58
	7	New Mexico State	56
						2	Saint Mary's	77
						3	Georgia	65
	3	Georgia	93
	6	Belmont	84

	Semifinals March 29					Final March 31
	1	Valparaiso	72
	2	BYU	70
						1	Valparaiso	60
						4	George Washington	76
	2	San Diego State	46
	4	George Washington	65

* Denotes overtime period

Media

ESPN, Inc. had exclusive television rights to all NIT games. It will telecast every game across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and ESPN3 (ESPNews was used for the Valparaiso-Florida State game). Since 2011, Westwood One had exclusive radio rights to the semifinals and championship. In 2016 Scott Graham and Kelly Tripucka provided the call.

External links

• Official NIT site