Men's Basketball NIT Tip-Off MSG

Drexel’s men’s basketball team will take the court at Madison Square Garden over the holiday to compete against some of the top teams in the nation at the semifinals of the National Invitation Tournament Season Tip-Off. The Dragons will face Arizona on Wednesday, Nov. 27 and will play either Duke or Alabama on Nov. 29. Both games will be aired on the ESPN family of networks.

To earn their place among the tournament’s final four, the Dragons had to get through Elon and Rutgers in the opening rounds of play.

Led by a 22-point effort from senior guard Chris Fouch, Drexel made quick work of Elon, 71-64, in the first round on Monday night. Then, facing Rutgers on its home court on Tuesday, Nov. 19, the Dragons used a career-best, 21 points from sophomore guard Tavon Allen to turn aside the Scarlet Knights, 70-59 and earn their invitation to “The World’s Most Famous Arena.”

Head Coach Bruiser Flint’s squad enters the week with a 3-1 record, led by a quartet of guards who are all averaging more than 12 points per game. Fouch is leading the team in scoring at 17.3 points per game, while his classmate Frantz Massenat is chipping in 12.3 points and 5.4 assists per game.

Flint, who became the program’s all-time winningest coach with the victory over Elon, has led the Dragons to their second appearance in the semifinals at Madison Square Garden in the last eight years. In 2005 Drexel faced No. 1 Duke and UCLA in the tournament, turning in exemplary efforts in both games including a narrow, one-point loss to the Bruins.

The competition in the NIT Season Tip-Off hasn’t fallen off much since then--Arizona and Duke are both ranked in the top 10 nationally entering this year’s tournament.

Wednesday’s 7 p.m. game against Arizona will air on ESPNU. Friday’s game will be played at either 3:30 p.m. or 6 p.m. and will be aired on ESPN.

For more information and tickets visit: http://www.thegarden.com/events/2013/november/nit-season-tip-off.html

The Drexel Alumni Association will also host pregame rallies in New York prior to both games, for more information visit: http://www.drexel.edu/alumni/