St. John’s Faces St. Louis for NIT Title

NEW YORK — St. Louis and St. John’s, both with proud basketball traditions, meet tonight (6 o’clock, PST, ESPN) for the National Invitation Tournament championship at Madison Square Garden.

St. John’s (19-13) is its 25th NIT and St. Louis (27-9) is appearing for the 14th time, but it’s been years since either won the championship of the country’s oldest postseason tournament. Ed Macauley led St. Louis to its only NIT title in 1948. St. John’s won the last of its four NIT championships in 1965.

It was announced Tuesday that Loyola Marymount will play at Nevada Las Vegas in the first round of the preseason NIT next November. Also in the tournament are California, North Carolina State, DePaul, Texas El Paso, LSU, Ohio State, Richmond, Wichita State, St. John’s, Alabama Birmingham, Houston, North Carolina A&T;, Southern Mississippi and Kansas.