Tennessee guards Jordan McRae, right, and Quinton Chievous react after Alabama defeated Tennessee in an NCAA college basketball game at the Southeastern Conference tournament on Friday in Nashville. Alabama won 58-48.KNOXVILLE – Cuonzo Martin stood in the same spot on the night of Selection Sunday for the third consecutive year.
But it’s been a different feeling each year for Tennessee’s basketball coach.
For the second consecutive season, the Volunteers were left out of the NCAA tournament and relegated to the National Invitation Tournament, where Tennessee hosts Atlantic Sun Conference regular-season champion Mercer on Wednesday at 8 p.m.
“It seems like, at times, every year it’s something different,” Martin said in the lobby of Tennessee’s basketball offices Sunday night after the dust had settled. “But once again, like I tell our guys, we’ve got to keep it out of the committee’s hands, and that’s the most important thing. It seems like I’m saying something different every year.”
Either the last team in the 68-team field or one of the first teams out according to most projections, Tennessee appeared likely to end up in a first-round play-in game in Dayton on Tuesday or Wednesday night.