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Georgia was selected to the National Invitation Tournament on Sunday night, the first postseason bid for the Bulldogs since their NCAA tournament first-round loss in 2011.

Mark Fox's Bulldogs were pegged as a second seed and will host seventh-seeded Vermont on Wednesday in a game that will be televised by ESPNU at 8 p.m. Georgia has a 19-13 overall record after losing to Kentucky in the Southeastern Conference tournament semifinals Saturday afternoon.

Georgia was among four SEC members invited to the 32-team NIT field, with Missouri (22-11) also drawing a second seed, Arkansas (21-11) a third seed and LSU (19-13) a fifth seed. Ole Miss (19-14), which lost to Georgia in Friday night's late quarterfinal, had the best record of any SEC team left out of the NCAA and the NIT.

The SEC only placed three teams -- Florida, Kentucky and Tennessee -- in the NCAA tournament, the third time that has occurred in the last six years.

Georgia will be making its 12th NIT appearance, matching Alabama for the second most among SEC schools. Tennessee has 13 appearances in the NIT.

The Bulldogs are 11-11 in their 11 previous NIT appearances, reaching the semifinals at New York City in 1982 before losing to Purdue. Georgia advanced to the NCAA Final Four in 1983 but was back in the NIT in 1984, when the Bulldogs lost in the first round at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Georgia played at UTC again in the first round of the 1986 NIT and won. The most recent NIT appearance by the Bulldogs came in 2007, when they defeated Fresno State in the first round before losing at Air Force.

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.