I'm not a big fan of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament or its runoff, the National Invitation Tornament, but this is a home team that's making big news tonight, so of course I have to talk about it.SAN DIEGO (AP)—Steve Fisher’s San Diego State Aztecs are going to New York and Patrick Mills is heading into the offseason.
The Aztecs blew a 13-point second-half lead, then rallied to beat Mills and the Saint Mary’s Gaels 70-66 on Wednesday night to reach the semifinals of the NIT.
Tim Shelton posted up for the go-ahead basket with 48.6 seconds left and Richie Williams made three free throws in the final 26 seconds as the Aztecs held off the Gaels.
This is the deepest SDSU has advanced in a national postseason tournament in its Division I history. Students rushed the court after the buzzer.
Billy White scored 17 for the Aztecs (26-9), who will play Baylor (23-14) in the semifinals on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.
Fisher was part of two NIT championships while at Michigan, as an assistant to Bill Frieder in 1984 and as head coach in 1997. Fisher coached Michigan to the NCAA title in 1989.
A big congrats to the Aztecs on advancing to the NIT Final Four, big hopes they take the Big Apple by storm this year. And of course, i'll be watching.
4 comments:
Good luck to them :) I still Remember when Nebraska won the NIT in 1996. One of two honest to goodness moments in the history of Nebraska basketball. The other being when we won the Big 8 Tournament in 1994. And Yes C's fans Mikki Moore was on both teams.
Just to correct one thing. The NIT is actually older than the NCAA tournament and at one time was THE tournament and it was still prestigious really until the NCAA started taking 30 or 40+ teams.
So technically I guess the NCAA is a run off of the NIT.
Now the NCAA takes 65 teams and has since 1985. That's when the NIT really became little more than a consolation prize.
Now the NIT is really ran third rate. In the way it's scheduled and the way it's officiated.
Still, I SDSU can win it all, it'd be thschool's first championship, and it's something my city can brag about for a few weeks. In a city where sports glory is something that we don't have the luxury of hanging our heads on, this San Diego would go ape-shit over winning the NIT.
In a city where sports glory is something that we don't have the luxury of hanging our heads on, this San Diego would go ape-shit over winning the NIT.
As Nebraska did in 96 and would have again if they won it this year. so I certainly understand that.
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