Honor Huff may have said the quiet part out loud about the future of national postseason tournaments for men’s college basketball.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga junior guard, fresh off his 21-point performance Tuesday night in the Mocs’ 67-65 win at Dayton Region No. 3 seed Bradley in the National Invitation Tournament quarterfinals, spoke about how much this UTC team was enjoying its deep run in the 32-team bracket.
It will continue when the Mocs (27-9) face Loyola of Chicago (25-11) next Tuesday, April 1, in the NIT semifinals at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. UTC will become the first Southern Conference program ever to play a basketball game in April when it takes on the Atlantic 10’s Ramblers, who advanced with Wednesday night’s 72-62 home win against Kent State.
“Yeah, this is amazing,” Huff said after the Mocs’ victory against the Braves — a Missouri Valley Conference program — in Peoria, Illinois. “The coaching staff is elated, and I hate to say this, but in a way this is kind of better than going to the NCAA tournament. I don’t mean to say that in a bad way, but being able to host a postseason game was cool, to be able to win three games in the postseason and then go to the final four of the NIT.
“This isn’t to say I don’t believe in our team, but how far would we have gotten in the NCAA tournament?”