Georgia Bulldogs making its first postseason bid in 7 years in NIT
NASHVILLE, TN - MARCH 14: Georgia Bulldogs guard Justin Hill (11) drives for layup in front of Florida Gators guard Will Richard (5) during a second round game of the men's Southeastern Conference Tournament between the Florida Gators and Georgia Bul
ATHENS, Ga. - The Georgia Bulldogs basketball team is making its first postseason bid in 7 years.
The Bulldogs (17-16) received one of the 32 bids for the National Invitation Tournament on Sunday night and will play Big East foe Xavier (16-17) at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at Stegeman Coliseum, according to DawgNation.com. UGA students will receive free tickets with a valid student ID.
The NIT Final Four will take place on April 2 and 4 in Indianapolis at the historic Hinkle Fieldhouse.
College basketball has multiple national tournaments in March besides Division I's March Madness spectacle.
The NIT is the second-tier tournament and is the battle to be the 69th-best college basketball team in the U.S., according to SBNation.com.
The men's NIT is televised on ESPN throughout March, mostly earlier in the week than the March Madness games. The women's NIT title game was broadcast on CBSSN previously.
The NIT was founded in 1938 and is run by the NCAA. The NIT generally has a good idea of which teams will be left over once March Madness is done and will quickly finish its bracket after Selection Sunday's main event.
If the Bulldogs win on Tuesday, they will play the winner of the first-round game between Wake Forest and Appalachian State. The Bulldogs beat the Demon Deacons, 80-77, on Nov. 10.
Georgia’s NIT berth was the result of the SEC matching the Big 12 for the most NCAA tournament invites with eight, putting the Bulldogs in the mix for the 32-team NIT field.
The NIT announced new policies for selecting teams in October. It now takes 12 teams that represent the top two non-NCAA teams from each of the traditional Power 5 conferences along with the Big East as determined by NET rankings.
Several teams declined an invitation to the NIT this year, including St. John's, Oklahoma, Memphis, Pittsburgh, Indiana and Ole Miss. Georgia, which finished the year as a No. 11 seed in the SEC, benefited from the other teams declining invites.
Georgia was invited to the NIT in 2018 but elected not to play because former Coach Mark Fox was in the process of being fired.
Georgia has yet to win a national championship in basketball. They made it to the Final Four in 1983 but lost to the eventual champion, North Carolina State. Their last NCAA tournament appearance was in 2015 when they lost to Michigan State 70-63. Their last NIT appearance was in 2017 when they lost to Belmont 78-69.