NIT 2015 schedule and bracket: Tournament starts Tuesday with George Washington at Pittsburgh, Illinois at Alabama

The 2015 NIT gets underway Tuesday night with nine opening-round games from across the bracket. Though none of the tournament’s four No. 1 seeds will play, each No. 2 and 3 seed is in action, with every game airing on ESPN’s family of networks.

For the most part, the higher-seeded team will host each game in the first three rounds before the tournament heads to Madison Square Garden for the semifinals (March 31) and championship game (April 2). The remaining first-round games, featuring the top seeds, plus 2014 national champion Connecticut, will take place on Wednesday night.

Usually the NIT offers a chance for teams that did not make the NCAA Tournament to make their case for why they should have been selected. Murray State will have the chance to do that Tuesday when it hosts UTEP. The Racers won 25 straight games during the regular season but were relegated to the bubble after being upset in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.

Illinois and Alabama will play another game of note. Though the Illini are the higher seed, Alabama will host due to a scheduling conflict in Champaign. The Crimson Tide announced on Sunday that head coach Anthony Grant had been fired, so longtime assistant John Brannen will lead Alabama as interim coach for as long as the Crimson Tide remain in the NIT.

Here is a schedule of Tuesday’s games, including where they can be watched. All times Eastern:

George Washington at Pittsburgh - 7 p.m., ESPN

N.C. Central at Miami (FL) - 7 p.m., ESPN2

Iona at Rhode Island - 7 p.m., ESPNU

Central Michigan at Louisiana Tech - 7:30 p.m., ESPN3

William & Mary at Tulsa - 8:15 p.m., ESPN3

Illinois at Alabama - 9 p.m., ESPN

UTEP at Murray State - 9 p.m., ESPN2

Montana at Texas A & M - 9 p.m., ESPNU

UC Davis at Stanford - 11 p.m., ESPN

For a full look at the tournament field, here’s the complete NIT bracket.