VU Men to NIT; Women get seed today

The NIT is not the tournament they wanted but the Commodores picked up an interesting draw in the first round of the NIT. Vanderbilt will travel to Notre Dame on Wednesday to face the Irish. The NCAA women's tournament seedings will be announced this evening. The Vandy women are projected to be a 5-8 seed in the NCAA.

Vanderbilt will play at Notre Dame Wednesday, March 15, in first round action of the 2006 National Invitation Tournament. The game time has not been announced.

The Commodores will be making their 11th all-time appearance at the nation’s oldest college basketball tournament. Vanderbilt, 18-9 all-time in the NIT, won the tournament title in 1994 and finished in second place in 1994. Vanderbilt advanced to the quarterfinals of last year’s NIT before dropping an 81-68 decision at Memphis.

“It’s a good, hard bracket,” Vanderbilt head coach Kevin Stallings said. “But that’s what you’d expect it to be because you are still talking about the top 100 teams in the country.”

“We’ve told ourselves that every minute we get the chance to play basketball we’re going to play our hardest,” said sophomore swingman Shan Foster.

Vanderbilt (17-12) enters the NIT after suffering a 92-73 setback to LSU in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference Tournament on March 10.

Notre Dame (15-13) lost to No. 23 Georgetown 67-63 in the first round of the Big East Tournament on March 8.

Vanderbilt is 4-4 all-time against Notre Dame. The Irish have won the last two meetings, including a 76-63 decision on Dec. 30, 2002 in South Bend.

The 40-team field for the 2006 NIT was selected by an at-large committee for the first time in tournament history.

NIT Bracket:

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************* The NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament Selection Show will air on ESPN today (Monday, March 13) at 6 p.m. CT. The Vanderbilt women's basketball team (20-10, 8-6 SEC) will view the selection show in the Admirals' Room of Memorial Gymnasium. This event is NOT open to the public.