After the Stanford Cardinal made easy work of Central Arkansas on the hardwood Friday night, they now turn their attention to the 27th annual Dick's Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off tournament, joining a group of talented teams in a number of venues across the Nation.
The Cardinal will join the likes of college basketball powerhouses Syracuse and Virginia Tech in this 16 team tourney taking place from Nov. 14-25, at five locations across the country.
The teams have been split into four, four-team regionals. Each regional will play the first two rounds (Nov. 14-16) at the home arena of that regional's No. 1 seed; the East bracket will play in Blacksburg, VA at Cassell Coliseum, the home of the Virginia Tech Hokies, the North will play at the Orangemen's home at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, the Midwest region will play at Oklahoma State's house at Gallgher-Iba Arena, while the West will play at Stanford's very own Maples Pavilion. The semi-final (Nov. 23) and final round (Nov. 25) will be played at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
The tournament will also host an array of teams from a multitude of conferences including Fresno State (WAC), Colorado State (Mountain West), Florida International (Sun Belt), Albany (America East), George Mason (Colonial), Arkansas-Pine Bluff (SWAC), Manhattan (MAAC), Monmouth (Northeast), Oral Roberts (Summit), Brown (Ivy), SMU (Conference USA) and Texas-San Antonio (Southland).
Stanford enters the tournament as the No. 3 overall seed, and will take on the Fresno State Bulldogs in the opener Monday, Nov. 14 at Maples Pavillon at 8:00 p.m. PT.
ESPN will provide complete coverage throughout the event, televising games on ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU, with games on ESPN and ESPN2 also available via ESPN3.com.
For a bracket of the NIT season-tip off, click here.