Georgia Tech won't achieve either of the goals that players set for themselves before the season — winning the ACC championship and making an NCAA tournament run. However, even minutes after their 72-52 loss to Virginia in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament Thursday night, they already were looking ahead to playing in the NIT.
“Whatever we’re in, we’re going to go there and try to win,” forward Charles Mitchell said. “I don’t care what it is. I don’t care if we’re playing in my backyard, I’m still going to have the same fight I have right now.”
It's not the prize that guard Marcus Georges-Hunt sought for his senior season, but he'll take it after three seasons of no postseason at all.
“That’d be my first time ever playing in the postseason,” he said. “I’ll make the most out of it.”
The NIT field will be announced Sunday night following the announcement of the NCAA tournament bracket. First-round games will be played Tuesday and Wednesday at on-campus sites, with the higher-seeded team given the option to host. Most likely, Tech would be in position to do that.
It would be an opportunity to continue the Jackets’ strong finish, with six wins in the past eight games. Guard Adam Smith, one of five seniors on the team, did not think that players would see it as a letdown.
“I think everybody would just be excited just to play again,” he said. “Having that feeling that this is your last game or last college contest is a tough one to deal with, so that makes (losing to Virginia) a bit less hurtful, less tough to deal with.”
Tech has not played in the postseason since 2010, when the Jackets advanced to the round of 32 in the NCAA tournament. The most recent trip before that was 2007, also to the NCAA tournament. With 19 wins, the Jackets have more victories than nine of the past 11 Tech teams and would pass the 2006-07 team with two wins in the NIT and pass the 2009-10 team by winning the 32-team event.
“I think our guys will respond well to that opportunity to play in the postseason, the opportunity to go get 20 wins or more, because that hasn’t been done very often in the last 20 years,” coach Brian Gregory said. “It’s only been done four times, so they get an opportunity to set themselves apart a little bit. I think we’ll be ready to go.”
Tech’s past 20 seasons, dating to the season following Tech’s ACC regular-season championship in the 1995-96 season, does indeed include only four 20-win seasons, all in coach Paul Hewitt’s tenure.
History and the RPI rankings would suggest that Tech is safely in the NIT field. In the nine years since the NIT field was reduced to 32 teams, all but two ACC teams that won 18 or more games and were eligible for the postseason have made the NCAA or NIT tournament. The only two exceptions were Miami (20-13) in 2010 and Maryland (19-14) in 2011. However, Miami’s season-ending RPI was No. 95 and Maryland’s was No. 97.
As of Friday morning, Tech’s RPI was No. 65 and its strength of schedule was No. 22. Of the 63 teams ahead of the Yellow Jackets in RPI, not including Louisville (which has removed itself from the postseason as part of an NCAA investigation), only 10 teams weren’t included in ESPN’s NCAA tournament projection posted Friday.
The NIT field does award automatic bids to any team that wins its league’s regular-season title but does not make the NCAA tournament, and as of Friday there were 10 or 11 teams that likely will fit that description, with potentially more to come. However, it likely would take a substantial number of upsets in conference tournaments concluding this weekend to squeeze out the Jackets.
The tournament is operated by the NCAA, and the at-large field is selected in a fashion similar to the NCAA field, with a committee using criteria such as RPI, strength of schedule, quality wins and the proverbial “eye test.”
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