USF's breakthrough season capped with NIT trip

The wait is over for the University of South Florida men's basketball team.

The Bulls, strangers to the postseason since 2002, learned Sunday night that they will host North Carolina State on Tuesday at the Sun Dome in the first round of the NIT.

USF (20-12) has played N.C. State (19-15) only one time in the 39-year history of the program, losing to the Wolfpack on the road, 125-88, in December 1972. That was just the second season of the USF program. The winner will face the winner of the UAB-Coastal Carolina game.

"It's a great second opportunity for us," USF coach Stan Heath said. "I sense the excitement of our players. There is a great field and we're playing for a championship."

USF enters the NIT coming off a 69-49 loss to Georgetown in the second round of the Big East Tournament on Wednesday. The Bulls had hoped to make a run at Madison Square Garden and earn their first NCAA Tournament bid in 18 years, but the loss to the Hoyas ended that quest.

Instead, the Bulls will make their eighth trip to the NIT, hosting their first postseason game since a victory against Coppin State 15 years ago in the second round of the NIT.

Meanwhile, N.C. State is one of the hottest teams in the 32-team NIT field. The Wolfpack upset Clemson in the first round of the ACC Tournament and knocked out Florida State in the second round. The Wolfpack's unlikely run through the ACC Tournament finally ended with a loss to Georgia Tech in Saturday's ACC semifinals.

The last time the Wolfpack played in Tampa was in the 2007 ACC Tournament when Sidney Lowe and his red blazer made it all the way to the title game before falling to North Carolina.

In a breakthrough season for the Bulls, Heath, in this third year, has the Bulls in the postseason quicker than only one other coach in school history. In his first season in 1981, Lee Rose led the Bulls to their first NIT appearance.

USF hasn't played a postseason game since losing to Ball State, 98-92, in the first round of the 2002 NIT. That game was the final game for former USF players Altron Jackson and B.B. Waldon.

USF is 4-7 all-time in the NIT, its best showing coming in 1995 when the Bulls beat St. John's and Coppin State before losing at Marquette in the third round.

USF is one of five Big East teams in the field, joining Connecticut, Cincinnati, Seton Hall and St. John's. Overall, this year's NIT field is one of the best in recent history, including defending national champion North Carolina.

"It is really a strange year for our tournament to have teams with such tremendous name recognition," NIT chairman C.M. Newton said on the NIT selection show. "We really think we are going to have a great tournament."

It could also be the last NIT if the NCAA adopts a 96-team NCAA Tournament next season.

"In all honestly, I think it would probably eliminate the NIT," Newton said. "I'm not real concerned. I want to do what's best for our game. If it's best to keep it where it is, and continue with the NIT ... then let's stay there. My concern is that we don't make the change for dollars."