The Loyola and DePaul men’s basketball teams aren’t finished with their seasons. Both accepted invitations to postseason tournaments Sunday and Monday.
Loyola (22-11) was invited to the National Invitation Tournament and will play at San Jose State (15-19) at 10 p.m. Wednesday on ESPN2. It’s the second straight NIT appearance for the Ramblers, who lost to Bradley in the first round last year.
Loyola reached the Atlantic 10 semifinals over the weekend before losing 62-55 to VCU, which won the conference tournament and is a No. 11 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Bradley (26-8) also was invited to the NIT and will host North Alabama (24-10) at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
DePaul will play in the inaugural College Basketball Crown tournament, which runs from March 31 to April 6 in Las Vegas. The Blue Demons (14-19) will play Cincinnati (18-15) at 2 p.m. April 1 on FS1.
The CBC is a 16-team tournament that gives automatic bids to two teams each from the Big Ten, Big East and Big 12, though DePaul received an at-large bid.
DePaul hasn’t played in a postseason tournament since the 2019 team advanced to the championship game of the College Basketball Invitational. The Blue Demons have won three of their last four games, including beating Georgetown in both the regular-season finale and the first round of the Big East Tournament.
On the women’s side, beyond area NCAA Tournament participants Notre Dame and Illinois, three in-state teams are in the WNIT field: UIC (14-17), Illinois State (21-12) and Western Illinois (16-16). The bracket is slated to be released Monday.
The Marquette women (20-10) will play at Drake (22-11) in the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament on Thursday at a time to be announced. Illinois won the inaugural WBIT last year.