NIT tip-off field, brackets announced

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

08/16/2010 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The National Invitation Tournament announced the field for its 16-team Tip-off tournament on Monday, installing Villanova as the top seed.

Other teams in the field for the event, set to begin November 15, include Tennessee, Wake Forest and UCLA.

The Wildcats, coming off a 25-win season, will host Marist in the first round in the North Regional. The other contest will have No. 7 seed George Washington playing Boston University.

Tennessee will be seeded second and host the South Regional with a first-round game against Belmont. Sixth seed Missouri State and Arkansas State make up the other game.

Wake Forest, seeded third, will be the host team for the East Regional with a first-round encounter against Hampton. No. 5 seed Virginia Commonwealth and Winthrop will also play in the bracket.

UCLA is seeded fourth with a game against Pepperdine at Pauley Pavilion. The other first-round game in the West Regional will have No. 8 Nevada going against Pacific.

The winners of the regional rounds will advance to New York City to play the semifinals and possibly championship game at Madison Square Garden. The semifinals are set for November 26 with the title game two days later.

The remaining 12 teams will play third- and fourth-round games on the home campus sites of the three highest remaining seeds.

Duke won the tournament last year, beating Connecticut in the final. Wake Forest (2004) is the only past champion in this year's field.

Wwwbullysports NCAA Basketball Betting News

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.