The NIT tournament first round will see the Belmont Bruins in Nashville, TN to take on the Vanderbilt Commodores. Belmont finished the regular season 25-7 overall after losing two of the last three games played following a two point loss to Morehead State to close the year. Offensively Belmont was terrible in their last game of the year making 39.5% of their shots and 16.7% from beyond the arc, while turning the ball over 18 times in the loss.
Ben Shepherd led all scores for Belmont State with 19 points on 5 of 10 shooting in 37 minutes of the floor. Big man Nick Muszynski added 14 points and Will Richard chipped in 11 points and eight rebounds for the Bruins.
The Vanderbilt Commodores come into the NIT tournament after finishing one game above .500 following a loss to Kentucky two in the year that stopped a three game win streak. Vanderbilt fell to the Wildcats 77-71 after allowing Kentucky to shoot 49.2% from the floor and 46.7% from beyond the arc.
Offensively this season Scottie Pippen Jr. has led the Commodores offense as one of two players averaging double figures scoring 20.2 points per game to go along with a team high 4.3 assists. Jordan Wright is second on the team scoring 12.2 points per game and leads the way with 6.5 rebounds.
