NEW YORK, March 13 (UPI) -- The National Invitation Tournament announced its 40-team field Sunday night with Louisville, Cincinnati, Michigan and Maryland getting No. 1 seeds. Those four schools were considered to have outside chances for the NCAA Tournament earlier in the day.
Among the 40 teams chosen were six that won regular-season championships but lost in their conference tournaments. Maryland (19-12), the national champion in 2002, will either play Manhattan or Fairleigh Dickinson on Tuesday. Michigan (18-10), which lost to Minnesota in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament, will play the winner of the first-round contest between UTEP and Lipscomb.
Louisville (18-12) plays in the first round Friday against the winner of Tuesday's game between Northern Arizona and Delaware State.
Among others also in the field are Akron, Creighton, Rutgers, St. Joseph's, Penn State Virginia, Stanford, Missouri State, Miami-Ohio, Butler, Florida State, Western Kentucky and South Carolina.
The schedule will be finalized on Monday.
