Cajuns and Tigers in the NIT, oh my!

Published 6:00 pm Monday, March 12, 2018

Southeastern La. is also in the NIT and will play at St. Mary’s (Calif.).

Never say the NIT doesn’t have a knack for stirring things up.

Or maybe the NIT was just trying to cut down on travel expenses on the road to the tournament’s Final Four in New York City.

But LSU, as expected, got a bid to the tournament Sunday night against a nearby — but unfamiliar — opponent in Louisiana-Lafayette.

Let the name-calling across the Atchafalaya basin begin — by whatever names the two schools choose to use.

The Tigers will host the Cajuns Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the Maravich Assembly Center. The game will not be televised, but will be available live streaming on WatchESPN.com.

“It is a step in a direction that will only continue to move this program forward,” LSU coach Will Wade said of getting into the NIT. “It is exciting to be a part of post season play in our first season at LSU. We look forward to the challenges ahead as we face Louisiana-Lafayette in the opening round.”

The tournament’s 32-team field is made up of four eight-team quadrants. It takes three victories to reach Madison Square Garden in Manhattan where the NIT semifinals and finals are held.

The Tigers (17-14), an at-large pick,  are seeded No. 3 in their quadrant. The Cajuns (27-6), the quadrant’s No. 6 seed, were guaranteed a spot after winning the Sun Belt regular season championship but being left out of the NCAA tournament due to losing in their conference tournament.

The winner of Wednesday’s game will advance to play the winner between No. 2 seed Utah and No. 7 UC-Davis.

One other Louisiana school is also in the NIT. Southeastern Louisiana (22-11) is the No. 8 seed in the same quarter of the bracket after winning the Southland Conference regular season but also falling in its conference tournament.

The Lions will play No. 1 seed St. Mary’s (Calif.).

 LSU will be in the NIT for the eighth time and the first since 2014 when the Tigers went 1-1, beating San Francisco and losing to SMU. The Tigers last home NIT game was a loss to Ball State in 2002.

LSU likely could have gone to the NIT two years ago, but the school let it be known in advance that it wasn’t interested.

That wasn’t a problem this time — Wade had been actively campaigning  for a spot ever since it became apparent the Tigers weren’t going to make the NCAA tournament short of winning the SEC tournament.

“I think we’re good enough, if we got in there, to make a run and maybe get a chance to go to New York,” Wade said last week. “That’d be a great year.”

LSU leads the all-time series with the Cajuns 36-10, but almost all were played in the first half of the last century. The two teams have played only five times since 1945 and none since 2009. The last UL-Lafayette victory came in 1944.

There were no games between the two between 1945 and 2000.