Nobody had said "no" to the NIT since 1987 until Georgia Tech turned down a bid to this year's 32-team tournament.
"We have exams coming up this week and we have decided to go ahead and take our exams," said coach Bobby Cremins, who said the decision was not an angry reaction to being left out of the NCAA tournament.The Yellow Jackets (18-12) were left out of the NCAA field for the second straight year. They are the first team to turn down an NIT invitation since Louisville (18-14) in 1987 - the year after the Cardinals won the national championship.
Other so-called "bubble teams" that didn't make the NCAA field were Iowa (19-11), George Washington (18-13), Georgia (18-9) and Texas Tech (20-9). All four accepted bids to the 58th annual NIT.
The first three rounds will be held at campus sites. The semifinals and final will be held at Madison Square Garden on March 27 and 29.
The NIT field includes four teams from the Big East (St. John's, Seton Hall, Miami and Providence), and three each from the Atlantic 10 (St. Bonaventure, St. Joseph's and George Washington) and the Metro Conference (South Florida, Southern Mississippi and Virginia Tech.)
The Big 10, Big West, Big Eight, Great Midwest, Mid-American, Ohio Valley and Southeast conferences each got two teams.
College of Charleston (23-5), Ohio University (23-9) and New Mexico State (23-9) have the most victories among the 32 NIT teams. St. John's (14-13) had the fewest.
"We're somewhat disappointed we weren't invited to the NCAAs," Charleston coach John Kresse said. "We felt we had an outstanding season with a more difficult schedule to play. Probably not having a marquee victory or two probably hurt our chances."
Texas Tech also was disappointed.
"I'm disappointed for the team, especially our seniors," said coach James Dickey, whose team lost the Southwest Conference tourney final to Texas on Saturday. `We really don't have anyone to blame but ourselves."
Notre Dame coach John MacLeod thought his 15-12 team had a chance at making the 32-team field. The Irish defeated NCAA qualifiers Indiana and Xavier.
"We have to understand that we did it to ourselves," MacLeod said. "We didn't finish strongly. ... Maybe this will be a lesson to us next year. Maybe the two 40-point losses (to UCLA and Kentucky) really stung us."