WKU Hilltopper Basketball’s season will continue in E.A. Diddle Arena, with a home game against Boston College in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
The fourth-seeded Hilltoppers will welcome fifth-seeded Boston College for WKU’s first home postseason game since an 88-80 overtime win over Kent State in the 2005 NIT, which was also their last victory in the event.
Single-game tickets for Tuesday’s matchup are available online at WKUTickets.com. Chairback seats will be $25, while bleacher seating will be $15. Student tickets are free courtesy of WKU Athletics.
This is the first postseason tournament berth since 2013 for the Hilltoppers (24-10), who fell to Marshall 67-66 in Saturday’s Conference USA Championship final.
This will be the sixth NIT appearance in head coach Rick Stansbury’s career.Stansbury’s teams have competed in either the NCAA Tournament or the NIT in 12 of his 16 seasons as a head coach.
Boston College (19-15) fell 90-82 to Clemson in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament last week.
WKU has faced the Eagles just once before, a 74-68 win in the Cotton States Classic on Dec. 29, 1982 in Atlanta, Ga. The Hilltoppers are 57-61 all-time against the current membership of the ACC.
The second round of the NIT is slated for March 16-19, with the quarterfinals on March 20-21. The semifinals (March 27) and championship game (March 29) are played at Madison Square Garden in New York.
WKU’s 24 wins are its most since the 2008-09 season. The Hilltoppers have 10 wins over programs with at least 20 victories.
WKU’s average attendance in Diddle Arena this season of 5,444 is the program’s highest since the 2007-08 Sweet 16 campaign. The over-capacity attendance of 7,759 against Middle Tennessee on Jan. 20 was the largest for a regular-season game in Diddle Arena since the venue’s renovation and capacity decrease to 7,326 in 2002. Over the last seven games, WKU averaged 6,547 fans per contest, filling the building to 89.4 percent capacity and selling out its final four Saturday contests, including three over-capacity crowds.
HILLTOPPERS IN THE NIT
WKU has a 9-14 all-time record in the NIT in 13 appearances. Coach Ed Diddle’s Hilltoppers appeared in the tournament nine times between 1942-54, finishing in the top four on three occasions. Since 1982, WKU is 1-5 in the NIT with its lone win coming at home against Kent State in the 2005 opening round.
STANSBURY IN THE NIT
This is WKU head coach Rick Stansbury’s sixth appearance in the NIT following five appearances during his 14- year tenure as head coach at Mississippi State. Stansbury has a 5-3 all-time record over the first two rounds of the NIT, including a 3-2 mark in the first round. His teams’ best showing came in 2007, when Mississippi State won three games before falling by one point to West Virginia in the semifinals at Madison Square Garden in New York.
HOME, SWEET HOME
WKU’s NIT opener against Boston College will be just the second time that it’s hosted an NIT game, the first an 88-80 overtime victory over Kent State in the 2005 first round. The Hilltoppers have also once hosted an NCAA Tournament game, an overtime loss to Virginia Tech in 1980.
ACC COMES TO TOWN
Tuesday’s game will be just the 12th time that WKU has hosted a current ACC member other than in-state foe Louisville. The Hilltoppers are 6-5 in those previous 11 contests. Including Louisville, WKU has hosted current ACC members 37 times with a 22-15 record. The program is 57-61 all-time in games against current ACC members, while head coach Rick Stansbury has a 4-8 record against the league. He’s never faced Boston College.
BOSTON COLLEGE-WKU TIES
Boston College head coach Jim Christian was previously an assistant at WKU from 1990-92 under Ralph Willard and again from 1994-95 under Matt Kilcullen. Christian was also the head coach for Kent State when WKU beat the Golden Flashes at Diddle Arena in the 2005 NIT. Christian’s Boston College staff includes assistant Chris Cheeks, who was an assistant at WKU under Rick Stansbury in the 2016-17 season.
PUTTING YOURSELF IN POSITION
This is WKU’s first postseason berth since 2013, when the Hilltoppers advanced to their 22nd NCAA Tournament. The program has appeared in either the NCAA tourney or the NIT on 35 total occasions. As of Sunday, WKU had an RPI of 39, which would be its highest to finish a season since 2007. It would also be just the Hilltoppers’ third sub-40 RPI in 20 years.
SUCCESS IN THE GARDEN
The semifinals and the championship of the NIT are played at Madison Square Garden in New York. The Hilltoppers have a long history in Madison Square Garden, starting with finishing as the postseason NIT runner-up in 1941-42. WKU is 19-21 all-time at “The World’s Most Famous Arena,” most recently defeating Saint Joseph’s 62-59 in the Preseason NIT in 2014-15. That was WKU’s first game in the venue since 1986-87. In addition to nine appearances at Madison Square Garden in the postseason NIT from 1942-65, the Hilltoppers regularly traveled to the city in November or December to face Seton Hall, St. Francis or Long Island, among others, during the 1940s and 1950s.
NIT EXPERIMENTAL RULES
For the third time in four years, the 2018 National Invitation Tournament will feature experimental rules intended to give the NCAA Men’s Basketball Rules Committee, the Division I Men’s Basketball Oversight Committee and the Division I Men’s Basketball Competition Committee data as well as feedback to assist in making decisions regarding rules changes. The NCAA playing rules process has a two-year cycle, and the next possible rules change date is May 2019.
“The style of play in men’s college basketball is healthy and appealing, but the leadership governing the game is interested in keeping the playing rules contemporary and trending favorably,” said Dan Gavitt, NCAA senior vice president of basketball. “Experimenting with two significant court dimension rules, a shot-clock reset rule and a game-format rule all have some level of support in the membership, so the NIT will provide the opportunity to gather invaluable data and measure the experience of the participants.”
The experimental rules will help determine if a marginally more difficult three-point shot will be effective for men’s college basketball, and if widening the lane will reduce physicality and create more driving opportunities. In addition, the number of possessions and any impact on the pace and flow of the game will be evaluated.
“The NIT is an exciting event with a rich tradition and history, yet it also provides us a platform to consider how the game might look in the future,” Gavitt said. “We’ve seen the adoption of recent experimental rules and how they have had a positive impact. This track record of the game evolving is a result of us having the flexibility to see if the rules work and are met with satisfaction, so we appreciate the support and partnership for the good of college basketball from our membership and our broadcast partners at ESPN.”
In previous seasons, the NIT has experimented with rules such as the 30-second shot clock and a 4-foot restricted area arc before those rules were implemented by the rules committee.
The 81st NIT will begin Tuesday, March 13 with the semifinals and championship game scheduled for March 27 and 29 at Madison Square Garden in New York. All 31 matchups of the NIT will air exclusively on ESPN networks.
The 2018 NIT will feature four rules modifications:
• The three-point line will be extended by approximately 1 foot 8 inches to the same distance used by FIBA for international competition (22 feet 1.75 inches). • The free throw lane will be widened from 12 feet to 16 feet, consistent with the width used by the NBA.
• The games will be divided into four 10-minute quarters as opposed to two 20-minute halves. Teams will shoot two free throws beginning with the fifth foul of each quarter.
• The shot clock will reset to 20 seconds after an offensive rebound instead of the full 30 seconds.