UC Irvine, three Pac-12 teams make NIT field

UC Irvine, the Big West Conference regular-season champion, was named to the 32-team National Invitation Tournament field and will face Illinois State on Wednesday night at Normal, Ill.

The Anteaters (21-14) lost to UC Davis in the Big West tournament title game. The Redbirds (27-6) drew one of the four top seedings in the NIT, along with California, Iowa and Syracuse.

Illinois State, which suffered a blowout loss to Wichita State in the Missouri Valley Conference title game, was considered the first team out of the NCAA tournament on many boards. The Redbirds had only one top-50 win, against the Shockers, to go with two bad losses to Tulsa and Murray State.

Four teams will advance to New York for the semifinals March 28, with the championship game on March 30 at Madison Square Garden.

California will host Cal State Bakersfield on Tuesday in another first-round game. Another Pac-12 conference school, Utah, opens against Boise State on Tuesday, and Colorado faces Central Florida on Wednesday.

Clemson, which hosts Oakland (Mich.), is making its 16th appearance in the NIT, the most of any school in the 2017 field. Nine teams in the 2017 field appeared in the NIT in 2016. Penn women get NCAA bid

For the second time in a week, Pennsylvania’s women got to cut down the nets on their home court to celebrate a championship. This time it got the Quakers a trip to the NCAA tournament.

Anna Ross scored 17 points and Michelle Nwokedi added 15 to help Penn beat Princeton, 57-48, and win the inaugural Ivy League tournament.

The Quakers normally would have wrapped up the conference’s automatic bid a few weeks ago as they went 13-1 in league play, but the Ivy ended its holdout as the lone Division I conference without a postseason tournament this year.”

“It’s been a tremendous ride with this team,” Quakers Coach Mike McLaughlin said. “It’s a celebration they’ll remember forever. We were fortunate enough to win three of four, this one is special since we’re on our court.”