NIT bracket 2021: Tournament schedule; semifinals set with No. 1 seeds Memphis and Colorado State to meet

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The semifinals of the NIT are set after Thursday’s quarterfinals and No. 1 seeds Memphis and Colorado State will battle each other for a spot in the finals to play either Mississippi State or Louisiana Tech for the title. The semifinals are set for Saturday with the championship to be played Sunday

Lester Quinones made a putback with 32.5 seconds remaining to give Memphis the lead en route to a 59-56 win over Boise State and will move on to play Colorado State. Quinones’ offensive rebound and basket ended Boise State’s 10-0 run, and gave Memphis a 56-55 lead. After a Boise State miss, DeAndre Williams made two free throws to give the Tigers a three-point lead at 13.2.

Colorado State is in the semifinals after Isaiah Stevens scored 18 points and David Roddy had 16 points and 11 rebounds for the Rams, who narrowly beat NC State 65-61.

D.J. Stewart Jr. made a 3-pointer with two seconds remaining to lead Mississippi State to a 68-67 win over short-handed Richmond. The Bulldogs’ opponent in the second semifinal will be Louisiana Tech after the Bulldogs beat Western Kentucky in a battle of two teams from Conference USA.

The semifinal winners will meet Sunday in the NIT Finals in Dallas

A handful of teams opted out of consideration for the NIT, such as Duke and Louisville, but the tournament still managed to assemble a solid 16-team field. The top four seeds — Colorado State, Memphis, Saint Louis and Ole Miss — were all squads with compelling cases for at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament that were left out of the field of 68. The NIT is usually a 32-team tournament that includes on-campus games before the last four teams head to Madison Square Garden in New York to decide the champion. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the field was cut in half and the tournament is taking place entirely in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas.

It will be the first time in the 83-year history of college basketball’s oldest postseason tournament that the semifinals and championship game won’t be played at Madison Square Garden.

Material from The Associated Press was used in this report

Here is the full NIT bracket.