The Seton Hall Pirates willhost the Massachusetts Minutemen in the second round of the 2012 NIT. That game will be held Saturday, March 17 at 11 a.m. ET at the Prudential Center in East Rutherford. Seton Hall is a top seed in Region Three of the tournament, and UMass is a fifth seed. Both teams are coming off narrow wins in the opening round of play.

Seton Hall held off Stony Brook on Tuesday. The Pirates lost the battle of the boards to the Seawolves by a 42-22 margin. Despite problems getting rebounds, the Pirates were able to squeeze out a 63-61 victory thanks in large part to hitting 48.9 percent of their field goals.

UMass needed overtime to beat fourth-seeded Mississippi State on Wednesday night by a final score of 101-96. The Minutemen won by controlling the boards with a 51-38 edge in rebounds. Their acumen on the boards sets up an interesting matchup for the Pirates.

Keep checking back to this StoryStream for details and a preview.

A complete 2012 NIT bracket is available here.

For more on the NIT Tournament, check back to this SB Nation New York StoryStream. Meanwhile, the SB Nation blog South Orange Juice is all about the Pirates.