CATS to play at South Carolina in NIT Tuesday

Stephen Curry (30) of tries to motivate his team as he defends Tony White Jr. (32) of Charleston in the Southern Conference Tournament March 9. (Tim Cowie photo)

Updated Sunday, March 15, 9:40 p.m

The NCAA men’s basketball tournament brackets are out, and as expected the Davidson Wildcats aren’t on the list.

But the season isn’t over for the Cats, who are led by the nation’s top scorer, Stephen Curry: They’ll play South Carolina in Columbia on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the National Invitation Tournament, which parallels the NCAA event. (Download the bracket here.)

The game will air on cable channel ESPN2.

NIT play begins Tuesday, March 17. Davidson missed a chance for an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament with its loss in the semifinals of last weekend’s Southern Conference tournament. And the NCAA selection committee passed over the Cats for an at-large berth.

CATS No. 6 IN NIT BRACKET

NIT selection officials apparently also did not look kindly on Davidson’s end-of-season performance, which included losses to Southern Conference foes College of Charleston and The Citadel as well as Top 20-ranked Butler. Despite having one of the best records in the tournament (at 26-7), the Wildcats received a No. 6 ranking in their bracket. In the whole field, only St. Mary’s of California (26-6) and Creighton (26-7) had better or equal records to the Wildcats this season.

The seeding means Davidson doesn’t have a first-round home game in the NIT tourney and must play the No. 3-seeded Gamecocks, who are 21-9 on the season. The winner will play the winner of St. Mary’s-Washington State.

Tuesday’s game will be Davidson’s fourth in the postseason NIT and the first since 2005, according to Davidson sports information officials. That year, the Wildcats defeated Virginia Commonwealth, 77-62, and Southwest Missouri State, 82-71. But they lost to Maryland 78-63.

NCAA PAIRINGS

Louisville, North Carolina, Pitt and Connecticut won No. 1 seeds for the tournament, which begins Thursday.

Connecticut will play No. 16 seed and Southern Conference champion Chattanooga in Thursday’s west bracket first round in Philadelphia.

North Carolina plays No. 16 seed Radford in Greensboro Thursday in the first round of the south regional.

In the east regional, No. 2 Duke plays No. 15 Binghamton Thursday in Greensboro.