Marty Gordon
Virginia Tech will be the number three seed in this week’s National Invitational Tournament (NIT), and they face 23-9 Richmond team.
The contest is slated for 9 p.m., and results will not be available until after press time.
Things have changed with the selection of teams for the tournament. No longer does a regular season champion from conferences receive automatic bids. Now, the top two non-NCAA tournament teams in the Power Six conferences were given an automatic bid.
Several schools like St. John’s and Coach Rick Pitino said no to the NIT bid. Pitt and Indiana also said no.
The Hokies (18-14) will face the Spiders (23-9) for the 109th time in program history. Tech leads the all-time series, 69-39. Richmond won the Atlantic 10 Conference regular-season championship and will be making its first trip to Blacksburg for a regular-season matchup against Tech since Jan. 14, 2009. The winner between VT and Richmond will advance to play the Ohio State-Cornell winner on March 23 or 24 at the site of the higher seed.
Tech has compiled a 25-12 record in the tournament, which it has won twice (1973 and 1995). This week will mark the 15th time the Hokies competes in the NIT.
After leading Richmond men’s basketball to a regular season title and No. 1 seed in last week’s A-10 Championship, Coach Chris Mooney, Jordan King, Dji Bailey, and Neal Quinn have all received end-of-season Atlantic 10 awards, the conference announced Tuesday. Mooney is the A-10 Coach of the Year, while King is the A-10 Co-Player of the Year, a First Team All-Conference selection, and an All-Academic selection. Bailey shared the A-10’s Most Improved Player Award, and Quinn was named Second Team All-Conference.
Mooney’s A-10 Coach of the Year award is his first in his 19 seasons at Richmond. Faced with as many newcomers (eight) and as few returning starters (one) as in any of his previous 18 seasons at UR, Mooney led his revamped roster to a 15-3 record in conference play and the program’s first regular season title since joining the A-10 in 2001.
King shared the A-10 Player of the Year Award after scoring 18.5 points per game during the regular season, while shooting 42.6 percent from three-point range
Richmond Spiders fell to St. Joseph 66-61 in the A-10 tournament quarterfinals.
A total of 32 men’s teams were invited to the NIT tourney with the two rounds being played on-campus locations. The championship round will be held in Indianapolis, Indiana.
