2019 NIT Season Tip-Off Field Announced

BROOKLYN (March 19, 2019) – The NIT Season Tip-Off will return to Barclays Center for a fifth-straight season during Thanksgiving Week of 2019, featuring an elite group of teams from America’s top conferences.

The field includes a pair of 2019 NCAA Tournament selections in the Syracuse Orange of the ACC (No. 9 Seed, West) and the SEC’s Ole Miss Rebels (No. 8 Seed, South), as well as the Oklahoma State Cowboys of the Big 12 Conference and the Penn State Nittany Lions of the Big Ten.

 

• Syracuse earned its 40th NCAA Tournament invitation on Selection Sunday. Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim is in his 43rd season in charge of the program at his alma mater. The veteran court boss has guided Syracuse to 34 NCAA Tournament visits, including five Final Fours and the NCAA National Championship in 2003. Boeheim is the second-winningest coach in Division I history and ranks fourth in NCAA Tournament victories.

 

• Ole Miss is currently in its first season under 2019 SEC Coach of the Year Kermit Davis, who has led his Rebels to 20 victories thus far in 2018-19 and the program’s first NCAA berth since 2015. Ole Miss is no stranger to Brooklyn, having captured the Barclays Center Classic with wins over Georgia Tech and Penn State during the 2013-14 season.

 

• Oklahoma State is led by Brooklyn native Mike Boynton, who has wasted little time igniting the Cowboy fanbase. Under Boynton, OSU has taken down seven top-25 opponents – four over top-10 teams – and produced a trip to the NIT quarterfinals in 2018. Boynton and the Cowboys recently signed the nation’s No. 13-ranked recruiting class and are looking to get the program back into the Final Four for the seventh time in program history.

 

• Coach Patrick Chambers guided Penn State to a 7-3 record in the final 10 games of the 2019 Big Ten regular season, which included victories over No. 7 Michigan and No. 17 Maryland. In his eight years as head coach, Chambers ranks in Penn State’s top five for wins and has the most wins over ranked teams of any Nittany Lion basketball coach. Chambers led Penn State to the Postseason NIT Championship in 2018.

This fall marks the fifth-straight year at Barclays Center for the NIT Season Tip-Off, which has been played in New York City every November since 1985. The outstanding 2018 field featured four 2019 NCAA Tournament teams in Tennessee (No. 2 Seed, South), NIT Season Tip-Off Champion Kansas (No. 4 Seed, Midwest), Marquette (No. 5 Seed, West) and Louisville (No. 7 Seed, East).

The NIT Season Tip-Off is one of 11 college basketball events owned and operated by ESPN Events, a division of ESPN. The complete field and schedule will be announced at a later date. Ticket on-sale information will be announced at a later date.