Villanova is a No. 1 seed in 2024 NIT, opens against VCU

Villanova is headed back to the NIT, this time as a No. 1 seed.

Last year, the Wildcats played in the NIT, but went unseeded and was bounced out in the opening round to Liberty. For the NIT, the committee only seeds the top four seeds in each quadrant of the 32-team bracket.

The Wildcats will face VCU in the opening round of the 2024 NIT on Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET at Finneran Pavilion. The Rams are 22-13 overall. They finished 11-7 in the Atlantic 10 during the regular season, and they put together a run to the Atlantic 10 tournament finals as the No. 5 seed, where they fell to Duquesne, 57-51.

The winner advances to take on either No. 4 seed UCF or South Florida in the second round. On the other side of the bottom-right region of the bracket are second-seeded Utah, third-seeded Iowa, Kansas State and UC-Irvine.

Earlier on Selection Sunday, three Big East teams got bids to the NCAA Tournament — UConn, Marquette and Creighton. Seton Hall was listed as a first-four out team.

There are a total of five teams playing in this year’s NIT — 1-seed Seton Hall, 1-seed Villanova, 3-seed Providence, 4-seed Butler and unseeded Xavier.

St. John’s declined the invitation to participate in the NIT. Pitt, Oklahoma, Memphis, Ole Miss and Indiana were other notable teams declining invitations.

For the NIT, all games are hosted by the higher seed, with exception to the NIT semifinals and championship game, which will be held at Hinkle Fieldhouse on April 2 and 4.

The only question left for the ‘Cats is will everybody participate? Last season, Justin Moore and Cam Whitmore sat out for the opening round loss to Liberty.