2012 National Invitation Tournament Explained

Type:	NIT
Gender:	Men's
Year:	2012
Teams:	32
Finalfourarena:	Madison Square Garden
Finalfourcity:	New York City
Champions:	Stanford Cardinal
Titlecount:	2nd
Runnerup:	Minnesota Golden Gophers
Gamecount:	4th
Semifinal1:	Washington Huskies
Semifinalcount:	1st
Semifinal2:	Massachusetts Minutemen
Semifinalcount2:	3rd
Coach:	Johnny Dawkins
Coachcount:	1st
Mop:	Aaron Bright
Mopteam:	Stanford

The 2012 National Invitation Tournament was a single-elimination tournament of 32 NCAA Division I teams that were not selected to participate in the 2012 NCAA tournament. The annual tournament began on March 13 on campus sites and ended on March 29 at Madison Square Garden.^[1] Stanford defeated Minnesota in the final game, by a score of 75–51 to become NIT champions for second time (first since 1991).

Participants

Automatic qualifiers

The following teams were automatic qualifiers for the 2012 NIT field by virtue of winning their conferences' regular season championship but failing to win their conference tournament. These teams also did not receive an at-large bid for the NCAA tournament.

Team	Conference	Record	data-sort-type="number"	Appearance	Last bid
Akron	MAC	22–11	5th	2008
Bucknell	Patriot League	24–9	1st	Never
Drexel	Colonial	27–6	7th	2007
Middle Tennessee	Sun Belt	25–6	3rd	1988
Nevada	WAC	26–6	5th	2010
Oral Roberts	Summit	27–6	8th	2005
Savannah State	MEAC	21–11	1st	Never
Stony Brook	America East	22–9	2nd	2010
Texas–Arlington	Southland	24–8	2nd	1981
Valparaiso	Horizon	22–11	2nd	2003

Seeds

valign=top	Washington Bracket Seed School Conference Record Berth type 1 Washington Pac-12 21–10 At-large 2 Dayton Atlantic 10 20–12 At-large 3 Oregon Pac-12 22–9 At-large 4 Northwestern Big Ten 18–13 At-large 5 Akron MAC 22–11 Automatic 6 LSU SEC 18–14 At-large 7 Iowa Big Ten 17–16 At-large 8 UT-Arlington Southland 24–8 Automatic	valign=top	Tennessee Bracket Seed School Conference Record Berth type 1 Tennessee SEC 18–14 At-large 2 Miami (FL) ACC 19–12 At-large 3 La Salle Atlantic 10 21–12 At-large 4 Middle Tennessee Sun Belt 25–6 Automatic 5 Marshall Conference USA 21–13 At-large 6 Minnesota Big Ten 19–14 At-large 7 Valparaiso Horizon 22–11 Automatic 8 Savannah State MEAC 21–11 Automatic
valign=top	Seton Hall Bracket Seed School Conference Record Berth type 1 Seton Hall Big East 20–12 At-large 2 Saint Joseph's Atlantic 10 20–13 At-large 3 Drexel Colonial 27–6 Automatic 4 Mississippi State SEC 21–11 At-large 5 UMass Atlantic 10 22–11 At-large 6 UCF Conference USA 22–10 At-large 7 Northern Iowa Missouri Valley 19–13 At-large 8 Stony Brook America East 22–9 Automatic	valign=top	Arizona Bracket Seed School Conference Record Berth type 1 Arizona Pac-12 23–11 At-large 2 Mississippi SEC 20–13 At-large 3 Stanford Pac-12 21–11 At-large 4 Oral Roberts Summit 27–6 Automatic 5 Nevada WAC 26–6 Automatic 6 Cleveland State Horizon 22–10 At-large 7 Illinois State Missouri Valley 20–13 At-large 8 Bucknell Patriot 24–9 Automatic

Bracket

Played on the home court of the higher-seeded team except #7 seed Iowa hosts #2 seed Dayton since Dayton is the host of the NCAA First Four and cannot host a first-round NIT game.^[2]

Semifinals and final

Played at Madison Square Garden in New York City on March 27 and March 29

See also

• 2012 Women's National Invitation Tournament
• 2012 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament
• 2012 NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament
• 2012 NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament
• 2012 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament
• 2012 NCAA Division II women's basketball tournament
• 2012 NCAA Division III women's basketball tournament
• 2012 NAIA Division I men's basketball tournament
• 2012 NAIA Division II men's basketball tournament
• 2012 NAIA Division I women's basketball tournament
• 2012 NAIA Division II women's basketball tournament
• 2012 College Basketball Invitational
• 2012 CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament

Notes and References

1. Web site: 2012 Postseason NIT Bracket . ncaa.com . 13 March 2012 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120324043037/http://i.turner.ncaa.com/dr/ncaa/ncaa/release/sites/default/files/external/gametool/brackets/2012NITBracket.pdf . 24 March 2012 .
2. Web site: March 11, 2012 . 2012 NIT bracket released . November 19, 2023 . ESPN.com.