PROVO, Utah – BYU basketball received a bid to the 2018 National Invitational Tournament on Sunday – a program record 13th-consecutive season with a postseason bid.
No. 6 seed BYU (24-10) will play at No. 3 seed Stanford (18-15) on Wednesday in Maples Pavilion at 7 p.m. PDT. The game will be televised live on ESPNU and broadcast live on the BYU Sports Network on BYU Radio – Sirius XM 143 and KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM/1160 AM. The winner of Wednesday’s game will face the winner of No. 2 seed Oklahoma State and No. 7 seed Florida Gulf Coast in the second round.
Stanford finished 18-15 overall and tied for third in the Pac-12 at 11-7. Reid Travis leads the Cardinal in scoring and rebounding at 19.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per game. Dorian Pickens (15.2), Daejon Davis (10.7) and KZ Okpala (10.2) also average double figures while Davis leads the teams in assists at 4.5 per contest. Travis earned All-Pac-12 First Team honors while Pickens was named the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Head coach Jerod Haase is in his second season at the helm at Stanford. He is 32-32 at Stanford and has a career record of 112-85.
As a team, Stanford averages 75.9 points per game while shooting 46.4 percent from the field and 37.5 percent from downtown. Cardinal opponents average 74.8 points and shoot 43.5 percent from the field and 35.4 percent from 3.
BYU coach Dave Rose has guided the Cougars to the postseason in each of his 13 seasons at the helm, including eight at-large bids to the NCAA tournament (2007-12, 2014 and 2015) and five to the NIT. In 2013 and 2016, the Cougars won three straight games in the NIT to reach the semifinals in Madison Square Garden.
This will mark BYU’s 14th appearance in the NIT. The Cougars have an 18-11 record in the NIT, including titles in 1951 and 1966. In addition to the title years, BYU has also played in the NIT in 1953, 1954, 1982, 1986, 1994, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2013, 2016 and 2017.
BYU has been led by its pair of All-WCC First Team honorees Elijah Bryant and Yoeli Childs. Bryant has posted averages of 17.9 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists while shooting 49.1 percent from the field, 41.2 percent from 3-point range and 87.3 percent from the free-throw line. Childs averages 18.0 points, 8.6 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.9 blocks while shooting 54.8 percent from the field. Childs also earned USBWA All-District honors and was named to the WCC All-Tournament Team.
Sophomore guard TJ Haws also earned All-WCC Honorable Mention. He is averaging 11.8 points, 4.2 assists and 1.2 steals.
First round play for the NIT is scheduled for Tuesday, March 13, and Wednesday, March 14, with the second round running March 16-19. Quarterfinals will be held on March 20 and 21 and four teams will advance to New York City for the semifinals on Tuesday, March 27. The NIT will conclude with the Championship game on Thursday, March 29. The semifinal and championship games will be played at New York’s historic Madison Square Garden for the 81st year.
First round action, on campus sites, features No. 1 seeds Baylor, Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s and Southern California hosting Wagner, Hampton, Southeastern Louisiana and UNC Asheville, respectively.
Other first round games include Temple at Penn State, Rider at Oregon, Harvard at Marquette, Nebraska at Mississippi State, Vermont at Middle Tennessee, Northern Kentucky at Louisville, Boston College at Western Kentucky, BYU at Stanford, FGCU at Oklahoma State, Boise State at Washington, Louisiana at LSU, UC Davis at Utah.
NIT games are being televised by ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN3. Additional NIT information can be found on www.NCAA.com/NIT.
Playing Rules
The official NCAA basketball rules shall govern all Tournament games. The NIT will utilize the following experimental rules during all Tournament games.
1. Extend the three-point line to the same distance used by FIBA for international competition (22 feet 1.75 inches at the top of the key and 21 feet 7 and 7/8 inches in the corners). [Note: Attached is a court diagram that includes in red the distances for experimenting with the FIBA three-point line and the wider lane. Institutions should use tape to mark the FIBA three-point line.]
2. Widen the free-throw lane from 12 feet to 16 feet consistent with the width used by the NBA. [Note: Each host institution will receive an overnight package that includes pre-cut lines for marking the wider lane.]
3. Games will be divided into four 10-minute quarters as opposed to two 20-minute halves. Team will shoot two free throws beginning with the fifth foul of each quarter. There will be no one-and-one free throws. In overtime games, team fouls will not be reset at the end of the fourth quarter. [Note: Attached is a score sheet from the women’s basketball score book, which use the four-quarter format. This score sheet should be used instead of the men’s scorebook.]
4. Reset the shot clock to 20 seconds after an offensive rebound instead of the full 30 seconds.
