Reaction: Georgia basketball opts in to the NIT

The Georgia Bulldogs basketball team has made a postseason tournament for the first time since 2017. Georgia accepted an invitation to the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) and hosts Xavier on Tuesday, March 19 at 7:00 p.m. ET. The Georgia-Xavier game will be televised on ESPN.

Several notable teams declined an invitation to the NIT including St. John’s, Oklahoma, Memphis, Pittsburgh, Indiana and Ole Miss. Many of the teams that declined invitations were pushed off the bubble to make the NCAA Tournament after several teams, like ACC champion NC State and Pac-12 champion Oregon, ‘stole’ NCAA Tournament bids.

Georgia is one of the beneficiaries of these teams declining NIT invitations. Georgia finished the year as a No. 11 seed in the SEC. However, eight SEC teams made the NCAA Tournament and with Ole Miss declining an NIT invitation, Georgia was the second-best team in the SEC that did not make March Madness.

How did social media react to Georgia accepting an NIT bid after several top schools declined the opportunity?

Former Georgia coach Tom Crean weighs in on declining an NIT invitation

Tom Crean (@TomCrean) just went in on teams electing not to play in the NIT. And he’s spot on. pic.twitter.com/FOk1cUJ81i

— Dave Connelly (@DaveConnellySG) March 18, 2024

Georgia is expected to have a full roster

Noah Thomasson said he’s 99.9 percent sure Georgia will not have any opt outs for the NIT.

— Anthony Dasher (@AnthonyDasher1) March 18, 2024

Teams to decline an NIT invite

Disgraceâ¦absolute disgrace to decline an invitation. I hope each of them get trounced next season. #NIT pic.twitter.com/uUJaOhhGfV

— Marc wit a C ð§¢ (@Marc_wit_a_C) March 18, 2024

Interesting that Ole Miss is declining a bid

Crazy that they have three NCAA Tournament appearances in 22 years and think they’re in a place to decline the NIT https://t.co/Gi9rCwFr1y

— Lawrence Dockery (@ldock93) March 15, 2024

SEC continues to be a strong basketball conference

The SEC gets eight teams in the NCAA tournament for a second straight year, tying for the most it's gotten in.

Doing pretty well with the current setup.

— Seth Emerson (@SethWEmerson) March 17, 2024

UGA officially accepts invitation

Invite accepted! Georgia will host Xavier on Tuesday at 7:00pm in round one of the NIT Tournament.

Tickets will go on sale Monday at noon. UGA students will receive FREE ENTRY with a valid student ID.#GoDawgs pic.twitter.com/bbD1zDHSBe

— Georgia Basketball (@UGABasketball) March 18, 2024

Pittsburgh officially declined an invitation

Thank you Panther fans for your support throughout the 2023-24 season.

Back to work building for 2024-25.#H2P pic.twitter.com/az6tjVEfVh

— Pitt Basketball (@Pitt_MBB) March 18, 2024

NIT is a chance to play basketball - why miss out?

If you don't make the NCAA Tournament and you decline an NIT bid, you are screwing your kids out of extra exposure and time together as a team. Crying you don't get in to the tourney and then saying your taking your toys and going home is not a good look. Just my 2 cents

— Scott Allen (@azsportsguy) March 18, 2024

Oklahoma's NIT bid decline

Thanks for a great season, Sooner Nation.

Sights set on 2024-25. pic.twitter.com/EZZyTcERSr

— Oklahoma Basketball (@OU_MBBall) March 18, 2024

UNC is a different basketball program than the ones to decline the NIT

Worked out incredibly well for UNC to decline the NIT last season https://t.co/ntdj7YYc6M

— Brian Barbour (@briancbarbour) March 18, 2024

Portal has hurt the NIT

The hard part now for all of these No. 1 seeds in mid-major leagues losing in their league tournaments:

1. No Postseason NIT at MSG
2. No more AQ to the Postseason NIT
3. Teams passing on the Postseason NIT due to the start of the transfer portal.

The event is on life support.

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) March 16, 2024

The transfer portal just opened

Whole system is a mess, why allow players to start the portal – there should be a date after events like NCAA, NIT, etc.

The reason these teams decline is they want to start the offseason process ASAP – which hurts the current kids (the problem is, they dont want to be kids – $) https://t.co/5e4kG7APbK

— Mike Gill (@MikeGillShow) March 18, 2024