NIT Tournament 2017: Bracket, Schedule and Top 1st-Round Matchups to Watch

The first round of the men's NIT should be a fun warm-up for college basketball fans before the NCAA tournament, as some very interesting first-round matchups loom Tuesday and Wednesday.

Here's a look at the NIT bracket, the first-round schedule and the top three games on the ledger.

NIT Bracket and Schedule

Central Florida vs. Colorado

UCF Knights sophomore center Tacko Fall is a dominant 7'6" shot-blocker, swatting 2.5 shots a game to go along with 11.1 points and 9.6 rebounds.

However, he also might be the most interesting man in the world, with all due respect to the Dos Equis guy. B/R Studios did a feature on fall in 2015, and it's well worth your time:

Led by Fall, UCF has one of the best defenses in the country, allowing just 60.9 points per game, which ranks fourth-best in Division I.

The Knights will host Colorado, which most notably beat Pac-12 regular-season champion Oregon this season. The Buffaloes also took down NCAA tournament participant Xavier.

Colorado is led by senior guard Derrick White, who scores 17.7 points and dishes 4.3 assists per game. Three other Buffaloes pull down six rebounds per night, and they all need to pitch in to keep Fall and the Knights, who are sixth in Division I in rebounding margin (8.8), from dominating the boards.

UCF is a two-point favorite, per OddsShark.

BYU vs. Texas-Arlington

This is an opportunity to get on the BYU and UT-Arlington bandwagons before next season.

The Cougars are one of the more fun teams to watch in the country, as they run at the fourth-fastest tempo in the nation, per Ken Pomeroy. Most notably, their five leading scorers are all freshmen or sophomores, led by sophomore forward Eric Mika with 20.1 points, 9.2 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game.

UT-Arlington, which beat NCAA tournament No. 7 seed Saint Mary's in nonconference play, was on track to win the Sun Belt title after finishing first in the regular season, but the Mavericks lost to Texas State in the semifinals.

Junior forward Kevin Hervey leads the team in scoring and rebounding (17.1 points and 8.6 boards a game), while junior point guard Erick Neal leads in assists (6.3) and steals (1.6).

Like BYU, expect UT-Arlington to be competing in the NCAA tournament next year.

Monmouth vs. Ole Miss

The Hawks are only favored by two points, per OddsShark, over the Rebels in this No. 4 vs. No. 5 matchup, with the winner most likely facing No. 1 seed Syracuse in the second round. No other game has a smaller spread, with UCF vs. CU being the only other game at a two-point difference.

Therefore, expect a good game between two solid teams. Monmouth has finished in first place in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference for two straight years but lost as a No. 1 seed in the conference tournament twice.

However, the Hawks won 28 games last year (and arguably should have made the NCAA tournament field as an at-large team) and have won 27 games so far this season.

Senior guard Justin Robinson leads the team with 19.6 points per game.

Ole Miss finished with a 10-8 SEC record and won 20 games overall this year, including victories over NCAA tournament participants South Carolina and Vanderbilt.

Senior forward Sebastian Saiz will be tough for Monmouth to deal with down low, as the 6'9" Ole Miss big man averages 14.9 points and 11.2 boards per game.