The 2008

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitational Tournament (NIT) is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Played at regional sites and traditionally at Madison Square Garden (Final Four) in New York Cit ...

(known through sponsorship as the MasterCard NIT) was a

single-elimination tournament A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final mat ...

of 32

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

(NCAA) Division I teams that did not participate in the

2008 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The 2008 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 65 schools playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball as a culmination of the 2007–08 basketbal ...

. The 71st annual tournament began on March 18 on campus sites and ended on April 3 at

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylv ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Each regular season conference champion that did not receive a bid to the NCAA Tournament received an automatic bid to this tournament. The remaining slots were filled by the NIT Selection Committee. The first, second, and third rounds were played on the higher seeded team's home court, with the semi-finals and finals played at Madison Square Garden. The

Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tree, ...

won the tournament.

Selection Committee

The 2008 NIT Selection Committee consists of the following former college basketball coaches and administrators:NIT – National Invitation Tournament
/ref> *

Rudy Davalos Rudy Albert Davalos, Jr. is an American retired basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective ...

* Don DeVoe * Gene Keady *

Reggie Minton William Reginald Minton (born June 10, 1941) is the deputy executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches. He also served as the men's basketball head coach at Dartmouth College in 1984 and at the United States Air Force Acad ...

* C. M. Newton (Chair) * John J. Powers * Carroll Williams

Participants

Automatic qualifiers

The following teams were automatic qualifiers for the 2008 NIT field after losing in their respective conference tournaments; by virtue of winning their conferences' regular season championship and not qualifying for the NCAA tournament.

Seedings

Bracket

Semifinals and Final

''Played at

on April 1 and 3'' * - Overtime game.

References

{{2008 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament navbox National Invitation

2000s in Manhattan

Basketball in New York City College sports in New York City Madison Square Garden

National Invitation Tournament Sports competitions in New York City Sports in Manhattan