First Round
Hoistra (22-9)
Second Round Third Round
1999 NIT Men's Tournament
RUTGERS (18-12)
CLEMSON (16-14)
Selon Hall (15-14)
OLD DOMINION (24-8)
Builer (20-9)
BRADLEY (17-11)
Xavier (21-10)
TOLEDO (19-8)
Alabama (17-14)
WAKE FOREST (16-13)
Providence (16-13)
NORTH CAROLINA STATE (18-13)
Georgetown (15-5)
PRINCETON (20-7)
Semifinals
Third Round Second Round
NIT
Semifinals
Madison Square Garden
New York, N.Y.
March 25
HOME TEAM IN CAPS
Fresno State (21-11)
CALIFORNIA
Northwestern (15-3
DEPAUL (17-12)
Pepperdine (19-12)
COLORADO St. (17-8)
COLORADO ST (17-8)
Georgia Tech (15-15)
OREGON (16-11)
Southern Cal (15-12)
WYOMING (17-9)
Las Vegas (17-11)
NEBRASKA (19-12)
Texas Christian (17-12)
KANSAS STATE (21-8)
First
Mississippi State(20-10)
Ron nd
Men
Continued from Page 1
But after a knock-down, drag
out season that had the Ducks
lose seven games by six or less
points, head coach Ernie Kent
and his players are more than sat
isfied with a chance to end the
season in New York.
Oregon (16-11 overall, 8-10 Pa
cific-10 Conference) will meet
Georgia Tech of the Atlantic
Coast Conference at 9 p.m.
Wednesday at McArthur Court in
a first-round NIT game to be tele
vised nationally by ESPN.
“To have the opportunity to
host a game here at home and to
play a team the caliber of Georgia
Tech, that’s like a dream come
true,” Kent said. “For this com
munity to have a first-round op
ponent like that on ESPN nation
al TV, I couldn’t think of a better
way to showcase this program
across the nation to recruits and
alumni.”
Earlier in the day, the Oregon
players found out something for
ward A.D. Smith said most of
them were assuming — that they
did not receive an NCAA Tourna
ment berth.
The NIT has a field of 32 teams,
half as many as the NCAA, with
the first three rounds being
played at the competing schools.
The semifinals and final will both
be played at Madison Square Gar
den in New York on March 23
and 25.
“It’s another level of competi
tion,” said senior Terik Brown,
one of only two Ducks active the
last time the Ducks went to the
NIT in 1997. “Everybody comes
to play, and it’s just so exciting.
It’s what you play for, to get to the
postseason and do as well as you
can, and we have that opportuni
ty right now, to finish up on a
good note.”
First the Ducks must get
through the first three rounds,
which may include a game
against a familiar opponent:
Southern California, which the
Ducks would play should the
Trojans beat Wyoming.
“Not to look far ahead at all, but
I think all of us noticed that pretty
quickly,” Smith said. “Who
knows, if that were to happen,
whether it would be in Eugene or
L.A., but certainly it would be
something we’d look forward to.”
It was the 85-84 loss on Jan. 7 to
the Trojans on a last-second, half
court three-pointer by Adam
Spanich that began a streak of
eight games in which the Ducks
were within four points of the op
position at the end of regulation.
The only win of that span was an
87-83 win over Washington State
in triple overtime.
The Ducks redeemed them
selves with a 60-55 win at USC on
Feb. 6, which began a streak of a
different sort, one in which Ore
gon won six of its last eight
games.
“That’s typically been my
teams — they tend to peak in Feb
ruary and really come on at the
right time, and this team is no dif
ferent,” Kent said. “I felt like,
from the UCLA game on, that
we’ve just been getting better and
better at a very rapid pace. When
we hit Washington up here, we
were extremely efficient.”
The Ducks lost to UCLA on a
buzzer-beater by Baron Davis,
but would lose just twice more,
to nationally ranked Arizona and
Stanford. Included in the wins
was a 77-63 victory over the
Huskies.
All of those games came
against opponents the Ducks had
already played this season.
Wednesday brings an unknown
quantity, a perennial contender
that has also had a difficult sea
son.
Georgia Tech (15-15, 6-10) be
gan the season 10-3, which in
cluded losses to Washington and
Kentucky, but it had a win over
North Carolina in Atlanta.
Since New Years, the Yellow
Jackets are 5-12, including a 78
49 loss to the Tar Heels in the first
round of the ACC tournament on
Friday.
Georgia Tech is led by forward
Jason Collier, a transfer from Indi
ana who averaged 17.5 points and
7.5 rebounds this season.
Despite their recent troubles,
the Yellow Jackets are usually a
national power, the kind of big
name school that Kent said he
hopes will help pack McArthur
Court on Wednesday.
“I’m looking for a huge sixth
man,” Kent said. “If you want an
opportunity for the students to
paint their faces, and line up out
side and get ready for this game,
for fans who have been in those
seats a long time to get an oppo
nent of this caliber, [this is it]. All
those people who wonder, why
don’t we get those big oppo
nents? Well, we can’t get them in
here.
“Now we have one of them,
and it’s an opportunity for us to
show who we are.”
Matt Garton/Emerald
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