The 2009 National Invitation Tournament was a single-elimination tournament of 32 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I teams that were not selected to participate in the 2009 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. The 72nd annual tournament began on March 17 on campus sites and ended on April 2 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, with Penn State winning the final 69–63 over Baylor.
Participants
Automatic qualifiers The following teams won their conference regular season title, but failed to win conference post season tournaments. Therefore, they were not awarded their respective conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. When they did not receive at-large selections to the NCAA tournament either, they automatically qualified for the 2009 NIT.
TeamConferenceRecordAppearanceLast bidBowling GreenMAC19–1314th2002DavidsonSouthern26–75th2005Atlantic Sun18–135th1987Ohio Valley22–91stNeverBig Sky21–92nd1984
Seedings SeedSchoolConferenceRecordBerth type1San Diego StateMWC23–9At-large2Saint Mary'sWCC26–6At-large3South CarolinaSEC21–9At-large4Kansas StateBig 1221–11At-large5Illinois StateMVC24–9At-large6DavidsonSoCon26–7Automatic7Washington StatePac-1017–15At-large8Weber StateBig Sky21–9AutomaticSeedSchoolConferenceRecordBerth type1AuburnSEC22–11At-large2Virginia TechACC18–14At-large3BaylorBig 1220–14At-large4TulsaC-USA24–10At-large5NorthwesternBig Ten17–13At-large6GeorgetownBig East16–14At-large7DuquesneA-1021–12At-large8UT MartinOVC22–9AutomaticSeedSchoolConferenceRecordBerth type1CreightonMVC26–7At-large2Notre DameBig East18–14At-large3New MexicoMWC21–11At-large4KentuckySEC20–13At-large5UNLVMWC21–10At-large6NebraskaBig 1218–12At-large7UABC-USA22–11At-large8Bowling GreenMAC19–13AutomaticSeedSchoolConferenceRecordBerth type1FloridaSEC23–10At-large2Penn StateBig Ten22–11At-large3NiagaraMAAC26–8At-large4Miami (FL)ACC18–12At-large5ProvidenceBig East19–13At-large6Rhode IslandA-1022–10At-large7George MasonCAA22–10At-large8JacksonvilleA-Sun18–13Automatic
Bracket Played on the home court of the higher-seeded team (except #4 Miami (FL) at #5 Providence)
Semifinals and finals Played at Madison Square Garden in New York City on March 31 and April 2
* denotes each overtime played
Game summaries
NIT Championship Team1st half2nd halfFinalPenn State 25 44 69Baylor 29 34 63 The Penn State Nittany Lions faced off against the Baylor Bears in the NIT Championship game. The Nittany Lions won the matchup 69–63, aided by Jamelle Cornley's 18 points. In a four-point deficit at the half, the Lions went on a 7–1 spurt to take a 2-point lead at the beginning of the second. After the Bears tied it at 37, Penn State made three consecutive threes from which Baylor could not recover.
See also 2009 Women's National Invitation Tournament 2009 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament 2009 NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament 2009 NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament 2009 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament 2009 NCAA Division II women's basketball tournament 2009 NCAA Division III women's basketball tournament 2009 NAIA Division I men's basketball tournament 2009 NAIA Division II men's basketball tournament 2009 NAIA Division I women's basketball tournament 2009 NAIA Division II women's basketball tournament 2009 College Basketball Invitational 2009 CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament
References