[bigboydan]

NEW YORK (AP) -Gonzaga and North Carolina, which both finished in the final Top 10 last season, headline the field for next season's newly formatted NIT Season Tip-Off.


The field for the 16-team tournament was announced Thursday, and the 22nd annual event will be played at four ``common sites'' before the semifinals and finals are again held at Madison Square Garden.

The tournament will begin in four regions: East (Charlotte, N.C.); South (Nashville, Tenn.); Midwest (Indianapolis); and West (Spokane, Wash.).

At Indianapolis, Indiana will play Lafayette and Notre Dame will face Butler. At Nashville, Tennessee plays Fordham and UNC Wilmington meets Belmont.

At Charlotte, North Carolina will play Sacred Heart and Winthrop will take on Iona. At Spokane, Gonzaga will play Rice and Baylor will face Colorado State.

``We've been examining this event for the past eight months and the importance of giving our teams an opportunity to play at least two games in regional sites showed itself as a priority early in the process,'' NIT Committee chairman C.M. Newton said. ``Going to regional sites and guaranteeing teams two games levels the playing field and just makes good basketball sense.''

In the past, first- and second-round games were played at campus sites with the winners advancing to New York. Now, there will be two doubleheaders at each region, with the first-round losers meeting in a consolation game.

In addition to Gonzaga, which was fifth in the final poll, and North Carolina, which was No. 10, six other teams that played in last season's NCAA tournament are in the 2006 field.

Gonzaga advanced the farthest, losing in the regional semifinals to UCLA. North Carolina, Indiana and Tennessee all reached the second round, while Belmont, Iona, North Carolina-Wilmington and Winthrop lost in the first round.

The Indianapolis and Nashville regionals will be Nov. 13 and 14, while Charlotte and Spokane will be held Nov. 14 and 15.

The semifinals and finals will be Nov. 22 and 24.

At least 12 of the games will be covered by an ESPN network.

Duke beat Memphis in last year's championship game.

[The Great One]

I like it. It gives it more of that tournament feel, Kind of like Maui or The Great alaska Shootout if they would mange to get a couple quality teams ever year. I lov3e the opening week of games with college and NBA starting and football in its prime. Great time of year except that is when the weather turns to sh it.

You can tell gonzaga has learned past lessons abiout going undefeated in a weak conference and not playing anybody kills your seeding. Last year, they played many tough games( lost most of them) and were somewhat rewarded with a 3 seed. Like I said, they lost most of their tough ones.

This year, they already play Duke at Madision Square and will likely play preseason top 3 team in UNC.

[Illusion]

I really like the new concept. I just wish they would have thought about it sooner.