UH will host Akron in NIT; Rice joins CBI
The University of Houston will have to travel only a few blocks for its National Invitation Tournament opener.
With renovation of its arena underway, the second-seeded Cougars (21-10) will host No. 7 seed Akron (26-8) at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Texas Southern’s H&PE Arena.
Across town, Rice accepted an invitation to the College Basketball Invitational and will host the University of San Francisco (20-12) at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Tudor Fieldhouse.
UH officials had planned not to host a postseason game in order to begin a $60 million renovation of Hofheinz Pavilion.
“It would be a shame if we were a 2 or 3 seed and we get to host a game and we forfeit and have to go on the road,” UH coach Kelvin Sampson said. “It didn’t sit well with me that we’re not going to host a game because of Hofheinz, especially when we are going to play a lot of our home games over at Texas Southern next year.”
While the school transitions to the new Fertitta Center, the Cougars will play their 2017-18 home games between TSU and Toyota Center.
Led by All-American Athletic Conference guards Rob Gray (20.5 points per game) and Damyean Dotson (17.3), the Cougars are making an appearance in the NIT for the second year in a row.
Sampson said the No. 2 seed was “great respect for our program.” If UH wins the opener, it would host BYU or UT-Arlington in the second round.
Akron earned an NIT spot by winning the MidAmerican Conference regular-season title. The Zips are led by 6-10 center Isaiah Johnson, who averages 16.7 points and 7.3 rebounds per game.
The game will be a homecoming for four Akron players: guard Antino Jackson and forward Emmanuel Olojakpoke of Cypress Springs, forward Daniel Utomi (Westside) and guard Ty Dalton (Second Baptist), who is redshirting this season.
The CBI appearance for Rice (22-11) will be its first in the postseason since playing in the CollegeInsider.com tournament in 2012, and just the second postseason home game in the school’s history.
“We are fired up to continue this exciting season and try to add to our 22 wins,” Rice coach Mike Rhoades said. “Our guys should be proud of being asked to participate in postseason play. I’m very proud of them. It’s another building block in our program.”
Houston Baptist (1713) will play at Campbell University (17-17) in Buies Creek, N.C., on Tuesday in the opening round of the CollegeInsider.com tournament.