The bracket for the 2018 NIT Season Tip-Off was announced Friday, and Tennessee will open against Louisville at 5 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Nov. 21, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
The other side of the four-team bracket features Kansas and Marquette. The winners and losers of each game on Nov. 21 will meet two days later on Friday, Nov. 23.
All NIT Season Tip-Off games will be played at the Barclays Center and will be televised on ESPN2. Friday’s championship will air at 7 p.m. ET, and the third-place game follows at 9 p.m. ET.
Tickets for the NIT Season Tip-Off go on sale on Wednesday, Aug. 22, at 10 a.m. ET and can be purchased via Ticketmaster by visiting www.barclayscenter.com, or www.ticketmaster.com, or by calling 800-745-3000. Tickets also will be available at the American Express Box Office at Barclays Center starting on Thursday, Aug. 23 at noon ET. Group Tickets are available by calling 855-GROUP-BK.
Tennessee trails its all-time series with Louisville 7-12, dating to 1913. The Volunteers won the first six meetings between 1913 and 1922, and the Cardinals then reeled off seven straight victories from 1927 through 1983. Tennessee then posted a 100-84 win over Louisville in the 1985 NIT in New York City before the Cardinals recorded wins in each of the five most recent meetings.
The teams last faced one another in the Sweet Sixteen round of the 2008 NCAA Tournament. Louisville defeated the Vols, 79-60, ending UT’s 31-win season (a program record).
In his 31 previous years as a head coach, Tennessee’s Rick Barnes has never faced Louisville.
Chris Mack enters his first season as the head coach at Louisville. During Mack’s nine seasons as the head coach at Xavier from 2009-18, he guided the Musketeers to eight NCAA Tournament appearances, including four Sweet Sixteens and one Elite Eight.
Barnes and Mack have never met as head coaches.
In its last NIT Season Tip-Off appearance, Tennessee won the 2010 championship with victories over VCU and Villanova. That year’s tournament was contested at Madison Square Garden.
In addition to their 2010 championship showing, the Vols also appeared in the 1992 and 2006 NIT Season Tip-Offs. The Big Orange defeated Rutgers before falling to Seton Hall in 1992. In 2006, UT suffered losses to Butler and North Carolina at Madison Square Garden.
The NIT Season Tip-Off is one of 10 college basketball events owned and operated by ESPN Events, a division of ESPN.
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