By Nina Mandell
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — The final four is set to tip off in Manhattan on Tuesday.
No, not the NCAA men's basketball tournament (how are them brackets holding up?), but the National Invitation Tournament being held at Madison Square Garden.
The University of North Carolina, Dayton, the University of Rhode Island and Ole Miss will face off in the NIT's final four at the Garden next week.
The tournament, despite being mostly ignored during March Madness by hoops fans in past years, has attracted attention this year as the Tar Heels of North Carolina look to redeem themselves after a dismal season. After cruising to the national title last year, in a lopsided 89-72 win over Michigan State, the Tar Heels were in free fall, finishing 10th in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
This year was the first in more than two decades that they didn't earn a berth in the NCAA tournament.
“The one record that we have that I'm really proud of is we had won a game every year in the NCAA Tournament for 20 straight years, so it's pretty frustrating right now," coach Roy Williams told the Birmingham News Monday.
But the Heels have fought through a tough NIT that has seen its fair share of drama.
In the first round, Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez received his seventh technical foul this season.
In that same game, one of his players, Herb Pope was ejected after he threw an elbow into the crotch of a Texas Tech player.
The next day, Gonzalez was fired, and another of his players was charged with robbery and kidnapping.
“Performance and success are not measured solely by wins and losses, but also in the conduct of those associated with the program,” said Patrick Hobbs, the dean of the university’s law school who has been overseeing Seton Hall's athletic department since July, in a statement.
Gonzalez wasn’t the only coach to lose his job in the NIT —after St. John’s lost in the first round in a heartbreaker to Memphis, embattled coach Norm Roberts was dismissed.
For Rhode Island and Dayton, a potential meeting in the NIT finals would be a rematch of an earlier season game, when URI topped Dayton, 65-64.
Tournament tickets are still available, starting at $10 a pop.
