It's basically an automatic than if you win your regular season crown and get snubbed by the NCAA your team goes to the NIT. Imaging the Anteaters surprise that despite a 25-9 record they got an NIT snub as well. So now we have a team that was in the NCAA's LY and lost to Louisville by 2 points that also has one of the best road record in CBB at 10-4 SU. Irvine is a tough match-up with the country's tallest player 7'6" Mamadou Ndiaye as his 84 blocked shots this season keeps most players out of the paint and forcing then to shoot jump shots. North Dakota has shot well this season but that was against a Big Sky foes in which 6 of their 10 teams are in the bottom 30 of FG% defense in the country while Ca-Irvine is #8 in the NCAA in FG% defense.