The Stanford Cardinal and the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers will tip off tonight at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York tonight at 7 PM Eastern Time in an NIT Tournament Championship Game.
You can watch the Cardinal and the Golden Gophers play live online here.
Here's a video from earlier in the season for the Cardinal:
And here's more on the matchup between the Stanford Cardinal and the Minnesota Golden Gophers:
The winner of tonight's game between the Stanford Cardinal and the Minnesota Golden Gophers will become the NIT Tournament Champion. Stanford has won the NIT once before, in 1991, while Minnesota won in 1993. The Golden Gophers also won in 1998, but that title was vacated because of compliance violations.
The NIT Tournament, which had been the only postseason college basketball tournament for a season in 1937 before the NCAA tournament came into being in 1938, was hotly debated as the most prestigious of the two tournaments for some time, but the NCAA tournament eventually prevailed and the NIT became the consolation tournament.
Recently, the College Basketball Invitational Tournament has become the second consolation tournament behind the NIT, providing almost half of the NCAA's 350-plus Division I basketball teams a chance at postseason play.
Here's more on the Stanford – Minnesota matchup from the Kansas City Star:
The Minnesota Golden Gophers and Stanford Cardinal are the last two teams standing in the 75th-annual NIT, and will meet tonight at Madison Square Garden for the tournament title.
Tubby Smith can become just the 10th coach in NCAA history to win an NCAA title and NIT title, providing his Golden Gophers successfully complete the task at hand. Minnesota didn't fare all that well in the Big Ten this season, posting a mere 6-12 league ledger, but the team did enough to garner an invite to the NIT, where it has defeated La Salle, Miami-Florida and Middle Tennessee all on the road, before edging out top-seeded Washington, 68-67 OT in the tournament's semifinal round on Tuesday. The Golden Gophers have a rich tradition in this event, sporting a 22-11 record in non-vacated games and a 28-12 record overall. The team won a pair of NIT championships in 1993 and 1998, although the 1998 championship was vacated. This is the fourth NIT championship game appearance for Minnesota all-time (lost to Virginia in 1980).
The Cardinal are 25-11 on the season and played to mixed reviews in the Pac-12 this year. Johnny Dawkins' squad finished seventh in the conference standings at 10-8. Stanford is 6-1 in the month of March however, and is seeking a school-record seventh win this evening.
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