Saint Joseph’s Men’s Basketball Accepts NIT Bid

Saint Joseph’s Men’s Basketball fell flat in the A-10 Tournament semifinals against eventual champion VCU on Saturday, March 14, but the Hawks’ season will continue with a bid to the National Invitation Tournament.

They’ll travel to face Colorado State at 11 p.m. on Wednesday, March 18, taking on the No. 3 seed in the Albuquerque Region. The Rams play at Moby Arena in Fort Collins, Colo. and went 21-12 (11-9 Mountain West) this season, exiting their conference tournament against San Diego State in the Quarterfinal round.

Saint Joseph’s enjoyed a miraculous turnaround under longtime Penn head coach Steve Donahue, who they signed as an associate head coach in March after the Quakers ousted him. Hawks’ head man Billy Lange left the program for the New York Knicks, pushing Donahue into the head role. While Saint Joseph’s struggled through the first two months of the season, they went 13-3 over their final 16 games in A-10 play, earning the 63-year-old Donahue the conference’s Coach of the Year award less than a year after he thought his career was at an unceremonious end.

With positive momentum building on Hawk Hill, Saint Joseph’s accepted their NIT invite. That brings the number of Big 5 programs participating in a postseason tournament to four, with Villanova Men’s and Women’s Basketball and Penn’s Men’s team all making the Big Dance.