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    UC Irvine to host UNLV in NIT first-round game on Tuesday
    • March 16, 2026

    The UC Irvine men’s basketball team is in the National Invitation Tournament for the fourth consecutive season and will open the 32-team postseason event against UNLV on Tuesday at 8 p.m. at the Bren Events Center. The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPNU.

    UCI (23-11), which lost to Chattanooga, 85-84 in overtime, in the 2025 NIT championship game, is the No. 4 seed in its eight-team portion of the bracket, which was revealed on Sunday night, a few hours after the 68-team NCAA Tournament field was locked.

    The Anteaters won the Big West Conference regular-season title outright before losing to Hawaii, 71-64, in the Big West Tournament final on Saturday night in Henderson, Nev. They host a UNLV squad (17-16) that lost to top-seeded Utah State, 80-60, in a Mountain West Tournament quarterfinal. USU went on to win that tournament.

    Other first-round games in UCI’s portion of the bracket include No. 1 seed Tulsa (26-7) hosting Stephen F. Austin (28-5), No. 2 seed Oklahoma State (19-14) hosting Davidson (20-13) and No. 3 seed Wichita State (22-11) hosting Wyoming (18-14). The UCI-UNLV winner will meet Tuesday’s Tulsa-Stephen F. Austin winner in a second-round game on Saturday or Sunday.

    Auburn (17-16), New Mexico (23-10) and Wake Forest (17-16) are the three other No. 1 seeds in a tournament that features teams from 18 different conferences. For the fifth consecutive season, the NIT seeded only the top half of the field. The bottom 16 unseeded teams were placed into the bracket by the NIT Committee as close to their area of natural interest as possible.

    All first-round NIT games will be played Tuesday or Wednesday, with the second round scheduled for March 21 and 22. Quarterfinals will be held March 24 or 25 at campus arenas with those winners advancing to historic Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis for the NIT semifinals on April 2. The championship game will be played April 5 at 5 p.m. PT at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

    UCI is making its 10th postseason appearance under Coach Russell Turner, which includes a pair of NCAA Tournament trips.

    ​ Orange County Register 

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