UNI Men Will Take on Saint Louis in First Round of the NIT

After winning the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season title, the UNI Panthers earned an automatic bid to the National Invitational Tournament. As announced on ESPNU Sunday night, the Panthers will play Saint Louis in their first-round contest. The game will be played on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. on ESPN+.

The Billikens, who reside in the Atlantic-10 conference, went 23-11 overall this year and 12-6 in conference play. They fell to Davidson 84-69 in the conference tournament.

Their leading scorer is Gibson Jimerson, who averages 16.1 points per game, and second in scoring is Yuri Collins with 11.1. Collins also led the A-10 in assists with 7.9 per contest and was third in steals with 1.9 per game.

This was after they lost one of their best players in Javonte Perkins in late October with a torn ACL in his left knee. Last season he was named second-team All-Conference and led the Billikens in scoring with 17.1 points per game.

The game will be played in St. Louis, at the Chaifetz Arena.

UNI's last contest resulted in a 66-44 loss to Loyola Chicago in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament semifinals. Prior to that loss, had won 11 of its last 12 games. They finished the season with a 19-11 record and went 14-4 in conference play.

This is UNI's second time in the NIT. The last time they played in the tournament was in 2012 when they fell to Drexel University in the second round, 65-63. Johnny Moran led the Panthers in scoring with 19 points on 6-for-14 shooting (5-for-11 from three) and grabbed eight rebounds. Seth Tuttle, who was just a freshman at the time, added nine points and hauled in eight boards.