Fresno State Athletics
Men's Basketball Earns Postseason Bid Into NIT
3/11/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 11, 2007
2007 NIT Bracket
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Fresno, Calif. - The Fresno State men's basketball team earned a bid into the postseason on Sunday afternoon. The Bulldogs were selected as one of 32 teams to participate in the new National Invitational Tournament, beginning this week.
The 70th Annual NIT was trimmed down to 32 teams this year and teams were placed in a bracket, similar to the NCAA Tournament. The new format and the amount of teams have placed more significance on reaching the NIT.
Fresno State was selected as the No. 5 seed and will face No. 4 Georgia on Wednesday, March 14 in Athens, Ga. The game between the two Bulldogs will be shown live at 7 p.m. (EST) on ESPN2.
"This is a great opportunity for Fresno State," Head Coach Steve Cleveland said. "Our team is excited to get another opportunity to play. We thought our season ended abruptly last week, but this is great news."
The postseason appearance will be the first since the 2001-02 team made the NIT, losing to Temple at Selland Arena. This will be Fresno State's ninth appearance in the NIT.
Fresno State finished the regular season with a 22-9 overall record. The tournament features 25 teams with 20 or more wins. The field also includes eight automatic qualifiers who were regular season conference champions that did not receive bids to the NCAA Tournament.
Georgia finished the regular season with an 18-13 record and lost in the second round of the SEC Tournament to Florida.
"We don't know a lot about our opponent right now," Cleveland said. "We are just trying to get some practice in before we take off. The NIT is a quick turnaround."
While at BYU, Cleveland took the Cougars to two NIT appearances.
Fresno State was placed in the West bracket, with the winner of No. 1 Air Force (23-8) and No. 8 Austin Peay (21-11), facing the winner of the Fresno State-Georgia matchup.
