ATLANTA — Returning to the post-season for the first time in four years, Georgia Tech will play host Jacksonville State from Conference USA the first-round of the NIT on Tuesday.
Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. at McCamish Pavilion. Tech is the No. 4 seed in the Irvine Region of the 32-team tournament.
Tech (17-16, 10-10 ACC) has won six of its last eight regular season games to finish eighth in the Atlantic Coast Conference, earning a first-round bye for the first time since 2021. The Yellow Jackets are 8-4 since the start of February, including wins over two of the top three teams in the ACC standings, Louisville (77-70) and Clemson (89-86 in 3 overtimes). The Yellow Jackets split their two games in the ACC Tournament, defeating Virginia (66-60) in the second round before falling to No. 1 Duke (78-70) in the quarterfinals.
Jacksonville State (22-12, 12-6 C-USA ACC) tied for second place in the C-USA regular season, a game behind Liberty, and advanced to the finals of the conference tournament, where they fell to the Flames, 79-67.
The winner of the Tech-JSU game will advance to face the winner of a Wednesday game between the No. 1 seed, UC Irvine (28-6) and Northern Colorado (25-9) either Saturday or Sunday in the second round.
THE TIP-OFF
- • Georgia Tech and Jacksonville State are meeting for the first time on the hardwood. The Yellow Jackets also have never faced either of their two potential second-round foes.
- • Tech has played in the NIT nine times previously, reaching the championship game in 1971 and 2017, where the Yellow Jackets lost to North Carolina and TCU, respectively. The Yellow Jackets are 14-9 all-time in the post-season tournament.
- • The first two NIT appearances came in 1970 and 1971, when the entire event took place at Madison Square Garden in New York. Later on, only the semifinals and finals were played at MSG, as was the case in 2017, when the Jackets defeated CSU-Bakersfield in the semifinals before falling to TCU.
- • The Jackets have advanced as far as the quarterfinals three other times (1998, 2003 and 2016), but lost on the road in each case.
- • Tech has played seven NIT games at home, where the Yellow Jackets are 6-1. In its most recent NIT in 2017, the Yellow Jackets defeated Indiana and Belmont at McCamish Pavilion before winning their quarterfinal game at Ole Miss. The Jackets are 3-5 in NIT road games.
