The Cincinnati Bearcats received a No. 2 seed in the National Invitational Tournament and will face the Weber State Wildcats Wednesday night in the first round. UC is one of four Big East Conference teams headed to the NIT.
Weber State (20-10; 13-3 Big Sky) was the regular season winner of the Big Sky Conference. They lost to the Montana Grizzlies in the conference tournament finale, knocking them from NCAA Tournament consideration.
The Bearcats (18-15, 7-11 Big East) head into the NIT playing arguably their best basketball of the season. UC won two games in the Big East Conference Tournament, defeating Rutgers Tuesday before upsetting Louisville Wednesday. The Bearcats fell to the eventual tournament champions, West Virginia, on a last second buzzer-beater after fighting tooth-and-nail against the nation's No. 6 ranked team.
The Wildcats, however, were playing good basketball towards the end of the season, up until the second half the conference championship game that is. Weber State led Montana by 22 points, only to fall by one point after Anthony Johnson scored an amazing 42 points to single-handedly knock the Wildcats from the Big Dance.
Cincinnati faces Weber State at 7:00 P.M. Wednesday at 5/3 Arena. The NIT allows home games for the higher seed in the first three rounds of the tournament.
A victory over Weber State sets up a potential showdown between Cincinnati and local rival Dayton. Dayton, the No. 3 seed in UC's region, faces Illinois State in the first round at UD Arena. Should both local teams win, the game will be played Friday at the Shoemaker Center.
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