The Washington State Cougars missed out on the NCAA Tournament with a disappointing finish to the 2011 season, but that doesn't mean the Cougs will miss the postseason entirely. Instead, the Cougars were officially invited to the NIT, joining the field of 32 in the race to Madison Square Garden. The NIT bracket was revealed on the NIT Selection Show on Sunday evening, and the Cougars received a No. 2 seed and will face Long Beach State.
Location: The Cougars will host a first round game as is customary for NIT teams. The higher seed plays host throughout the tournament until the field is down to the Final Four, which is played at Madison Square Garden.
Region: The top seed in the Cougars' region is Boston College. Instead of regions named geographically, like the NCAA Tournament, the NIT simply names its No. 1 seed and calls it good. In fact, on the selection show, regions were named "top-right," "bottom-left" and so on.
Seed: The Cougars were somewhat close to the NCAA Tournament and expected to be a high seed in the NIT. They got just that, receiving a No. 2 seed in the tornament.
Schedule: The first round matchup will be played on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Potential second round matchup: The winner of the Washington State-Long Beach State game will face the winner of the Harvard-Oklahoma State game. Harvard is a No. 6 seed after just missing the NCAA Tournament in the Ivy League one-game playoff. Oklahoma State is a No. 3 seed.
For more on the NIT Tournament, check out the rest of our NIT bracket StoryStream. To get a Washington State feel, be sure to stop by SB Nation's CougCenter..