NIT preseason tourney field announced
Stephen Curry will lead Davidson against James Madison in the opening round of the NIT Season Tip-Off.
The Wildcats are one of seven teams from last season’s NCAA tournament in the field of 16, which was announced Tuesday by the NIT Selection Committee.
Purdue and Oklahoma both reached the second round of the NCAA last season while Cornell, Arizona, Mississippi Valley State and Georgia all lost first-round games.
Curry, a junior who averaged 25.9 points last season and is the nation’s leading returning scorer, carried the Wildcats into a regional final where they lost to eventual NCAA champion Kansas. Davidson will play James Madison in the South Regional at Norman, Okla., while Oklahoma faces Mississippi Valley State.
Boston College will host the East Regional and will play Loyola, Md., while Cornell faces St. John’s.
Purdue hosts the North Regional and will play Eastern Michigan. Georgia will play Loyola, Ill., in the region’s other game.
Arizona hosts the West Regional and will play Florida Atlantic, while Santa Clara faces UAB.
The first-round games will be Nov. 17, with the regional championship and third-place games on Nov. 18.
The four winners advance to Madison Square Garden with the semifinals on Nov. 26 and the championship game on Nov. 28.
•New Indiana basketball coach Tom Crean signed a 10-year contract worth at least $23.6 million.
The deal includes an annual base salary of $600,000 and additional payments for promotional work. He will receive $1.4 million this season from outside income, a total that will increase slightly each year.
Auto racing
Changes for Hornish Jr.
Travis Geisler replaced Chris Carrier as crew chief for rookie Sam Hornish Jr. in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
Geisler, a 27-year-old mechanical engineering graduate from Vanderbilt, has been the race engineer for Ryan Newman’s No. 12 Dodge. He played a key part in that team’s Daytona 500 victory in February.
Hornish, a three-time IndyCar Series champion and the 2006 Indy 500 winner, is trying to make the transition to stock cars. Hornish is 33rd in the season points and has a best finish of 13th in May at Charlotte.
•NASCAR will wait another day before issuing penalties against Joe Gibbs Racing’s Nationwide Series teams, who were caught trying to cheat during a postrace test last weekend.
The teams of Gibbs’ No. 18 and No. 20 Toyotas deliberately attempted to mask the true horsepower in their engines after Saturday’s race at Michigan International Speedway.
Inspectors found magnets under the gas pedals of both cars when they were sent to the chassis dyno for examination.
Tennis
U.S. Open seeds set
Rafael Nadal was seeded No. 1 for the U.S. Open, making it the first time since January 2004 that a man other than Roger Federer holds that top spot at a Grand Slam tournament.
Ana Ivanovic is the No. 1 seed on the women’s side. The tournament begins Aug. 25, and the draw will be announced Thursday.