In the first round of the NIT, the La Salle Explorers will take on the Minnesota Golden Gophers for the right to advance.
The three-seed Explorers (21-12, 9-7) have the home court advantage tonight as the higher seed. La Salle will be looking for big games out of Ramon Galloway and senior guard Earl Pettis, who combined average 29.5 points per game.
The Explorers come in playing pretty good basketball lately winning three of their last four. Of course, a 78-71 defeat by St. Louis did finish off their NCAA Tournament dreams.
For Minnesota (19-14, 6-12), it was a rocky year in the loaded Big 10. Tubby Smith saw his team get out of the blocks with a 12-1 start only to get destroyed in conference play. The Golden Gophers couldn't hang with the big boys in their conference, only beating Indiana out of the teams that made the NCAA Tournament.
Trevor Mbakwe will give the most headaches to La Salle. He's been a beast, averaging 14 points and nine rebounds per game.
The winner will move on to face either Miami (FL) or Valparaiso in the next round.
TV: ESPN2
Time: 7:00 p.m. ET
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