March 18, 2012

AMHERST, Mass. - A pair of coaches with a familiar past will meet up on Tuesday night as the UMass basketball team heads to Drexel for an NIT Quarterfinal match-up. The game will be televised at 7 PM on ESPN. Tickets are all general admission and can be ordered from the Drexel Ticket Office at 866-4-DREXEL or online at www.DrexelTickets.com.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for youth (12-and-under). Tickets are available online immediately. The Drexel Ticket Office is open 8:30 AM to 6:30 PM on Monday and 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM on Tuesday.

UMass (24-11) is coming off a 77-67 win at Seton Hall on Saturday. The Minutemen began their NIT run with a 101-96 win at Mississippi State.

Drexel (29-6) defeated Central Florida and Northern Iowa to advance to the quarterfinal round.

The game will feature a pair of head coaches who are closely familiar with each other. Derek Kellogg played under Drexel head coach Bruiser Flint when Flint was an assistant coach at UMass. Kellogg was also a graduate assistant coach for Flint when he took over as head coach of the Minutemen in 1996-97.

A No. 3 seed in the NIT Tournament Bracket, Drexel has won 21-of-22 games since the turn of the new year. UMass, the No. 5 seed, has won five of its last six games.

This is the Minutemen's third NIT Quarterfinal appearance in program history. The last time UMass was in the NIT Quarterfinals was in the amazing comeback win at Syracuse during the 2007-08 season. That same postseason, UMass defeated Flordia in the NIT Semifinals before falling to Ohio State in the NIT Championship Game.