2002 National Invitation Tournament
| 2002 National Invitation Tournament | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | 2001–02 | ||||
| Teams | 40 | ||||
| Finals site |
Madison Square Garden New York City |
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| Champions | Memphis (1st title) | ||||
| Runner-up | South Carolina (1st title game) | ||||
| Semifinalists | |||||
| Winning coach | John Calipari (1st title) | ||||
| MVP | Dajuan Wagner Memphis | ||||
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The 2002 National Invitation Tournament was the 2002 edition of the annual NCAA college basketball competition.
Below is a list of the 40 teams selected for the tournament.
Big East Conference member Georgetown originally was among the teams selected, but declined to take part. Hoyas head coach Craig Esherick explained that Georgetown′s home court, the MCI Center in Washington, D.C., was booked to host the East Regional of the 2002 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, meaning that accepting the NIT invitation would have required the Hoyas to play on the road in the West for two weeks, forcing his players to miss many of their classes. After playing a similar schedule the previous season during the 2001 NCAA Tournament, Esherick had concluded that missing so many classes to play in the NIT, a tournament which did not offer a chance for a national championship, was not in the best interest of Georgetown's players.
Esherick's controversial decision meant that Georgetown had no postseason play for the first time since the 1973–74 season. Georgetown became only the second team in history to turn down an NIT bid, and the first to do so since Louisville turned down a bid to the 1987 NIT.
Below are the four first round brackets, along with the four-team championship bracket.
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