New York, N.Y. -- They paraded out one at a time, these Final Four coaches in the National Invitation Championships, all happy to have their college basketball seasons extended to April. Texas Tech's Bob Knight, Minnesota's Don Munson, Georgetown's Craig Esherick and St. John's own Mike Jarvis came to Manhattan this afternoon to speak at the tipoff NIT Championship Press Conference at the Marriott Marquis Hotel.

"You must be doing something right if you're one of only eight teams still playing," St. John's head coach Mike Jarvis said. "One of us will be cutting down the nets before the NCAA Finals begin this weekend. It's a great honor for us to be a part of the storied history of this tournament."

Jarvis and Knight have met once before in the second round of the NCAA Championships in Orlando, FL on March 13, 1999. The Red Storm prevailed 86-61 over Indiana University on their way to an Elite Eight appearance in Jarvis' first season in New York.

Knight lauded the history of the NIT dating back to 1938 and what it means to be playing in New York and at Madison Square Garden. Munson applauded his teams desire after losing their final four regular season games and Esherick was excited to have received the invitation.

Tickets for the NIT Championships can be obtained by ordering online or by calling TicketMaster at 212-307-7171. Purchases can also be made by calling the Madison Square Garden Ticket Office at 212-465-MSG1.

Semi-Final action begins at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 1 with the Golden Gophers of Minnesota facing the Georgetown Hoyas and then its the Red Storm of St. John's battling the Texas Tech Red Raiders at 9:30 p.m. televised nationally on ESPN2.

Mike Crispino, Anthony Fucilli and Tarik Turner have all the live action on 1560AM radio Disney along with WADO (Spanish radio) 1280AM's Jerry Oyala and Tiny Cains.