The Minnesota Golden Gophers will play their first game of the 2012 National Invitational Tournament, better known as the NIT, on Wednesday night against the La Salle Explorers. The Golden Gophers are the No. 6 seed, but should enter the tournament schedule with a bit of confidence considering they were able to take the Michigan Wolverines to overtime in last week's Big Ten Tournament.
The Gophers lost a heartbreaker to the Wolverines in the second round of their conference tournament, dropping an overtime decision after trailing for a decent amount of the final 10 minutes of their game. They'll look to build on that, specifically the success their young stars had, when they play the Explorers in a game scheduled to be televised on ESPN2 at 6 p.m. Central time.
The Explorers won their opening round game in the A-10 Tournament, but fell in the second round to the Saint Louis Billikens before advancing any further. La Salle finished the season with a 21-12 record, going 9-7 in their conference.
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