Will we accept NIT?

#30
#30
golfballs said:
Has there been a team that’s ever declined the NIT?
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TN turned it down in the early 1970s. The NCAAT was one bid per conference, TN tied KY for the SEC championship but lost the outright championship and the tie-breaker in the final game. The players were so disappointed that they voted to not go to the NIT. 1971 or 1972 I think. I'll edit in the season link in a minute or two.

Edit: 1971-72. Lost at KY by 2 earlier in the season and lost to KY at home, by one, on the last game of the season. Tied for the SEC title with KY.

1971-72 Tennessee Volunteers Schedule and Results | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

48 years ago this Monday. Pretty good inside/out offense with Len Kosmalski and Mike Edwards. Larry Robinson was really good. John Snow and Lloyd Richardson were solid. TN's first team with African-American players. Larry Robinson and Wilbert Cherry. Wilbert might have come from Oak Ridge. So sad that the NCAAT only took one team then. Mears could have piled up a lot of EEs and FFs if Adolph Rupp wasn't taking all of those exclusive bids.
 
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#34
#34
VolsSportsFan said:
If you mean the Robert Morris game, that was at Robert Morris. They had to play at RM because Rupp was booked since no one thought Kentucky would be hosting a game in mid March.
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That's right, and Memorial Gym was booked for the women's NCAAT First Round, too, or something like that.
 
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#35
#35
This isn't a typical NIT opportunity. Most of the time it's a huge let down and it was hard to get motivated to play some amped up mid-major. Good chance to get valuable win-or-go-home games for the 6 freshmen and for our home town homie JB to end on a good note. Getting to MSG would be awesome. Winning 4 straight in the SECT would be better though.
 
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#38
#38
Absolutely, even the NIT is an award for achieving a winning record and after that poor December run we had, there was some serious questions how many games we were going to win in conference play. If we get a NIT bid you have to take it with this squad. Nothing but positives with the extra time on court. In fact I would like to see them use it and actually run a deeper rotation and get Nkamhoua, Gaines, Plavsic, Gaines and Pember on the court with more minutes.
 
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#46
#46
For some reason I thought that TN/Barnes declined the NIT in his first 2 seasons? Maybe that was something different?
 
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