1970 National Invitation Tournament

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1970 National Invitation Tournament
Season 196970
Teams16
Finals site Madison Square Garden,
New York City
Champions Marquette Warriors (1st title)
Runner-up St. John's Redmen (7th title game)
Semifinalists
Winning coach Al McGuire (1st title)
MVP Dean Meminger (Marquette)
National Invitation Tournaments
« 1969 1971 »

The 1970 National Invitation Tournament was the 1970 edition of the annual NCAA college basketball competition. It was unique in that coach Al McGuire of 8th ranked Marquette University, unhappy with his team's NCAA tournament placement in the Midwest rather than the closer Mideast regional, turned down that bid and elected to play in the NIT instead. [1] [2] His Marquette Warriors went on to claim the championship, and as a result the NCAA now forbids its members from playing in other postseason tournaments if offered an NCAA bid.

Contents

This tournament represented the final college games for LSU great Pete Maravich, the Men's NCAA all-time leading scorer. Maravich finished his three-year career with 3,667 points, 44.2 per game, records which stand through the 2022–23 season, despite the reinstitution of freshman eligibility (1972–73) and the introduction of the shot clock (1985–86) and 3-point shot (1986–87). It was LSU's only postseason appearance between 1954 and 1979. The Tigers were coached by Pete's father, Press Maravich.

Selected teams

Sixteen teams were selected for the 1970 NIT.

TeamConferenceOverall recordAppearanceLast bid
Army Independent 19–57th1969
Cincinnati Missouri Valley 21–54th 1957
Duke ACC 17–83rd 1968
Duquesne Independent 17–613th 1968
Georgetown Independent 18–62nd 1953
Georgia Tech Independent 16–91stNever
Louisville Missouri Valley 18–88th 1969
LSU SEC 20–81stNever
Manhattan Independent 17–710th 1966
Marquette Independent 22–34th 1967
Miami (OH) MAC 16–71stNever
North Carolina ACC 18–81stNever
Oklahoma Big Eight 18–81stNever
St. John's Independent 18–719th 1966
UMass Yankee 18–61stNever
Utah WAC 17–96th 1957

Bracket

First Round Quarterfinals Semifinals Finals
            
Manhattan 95
North Carolina 90
Manhattan 72
Army77
Army 72
Cincinnati 67
Army 59
St. John's60
Georgia Tech 78
Duquesne 68
Georgia Tech 55
St. John's56
St. John's 70
Miami (OH) 57
St. John's 53
Marquette65
Marquette 62
UMass 55
Marquette83
Utah 63
Utah 78
Duke 75
Marquette101
LSU 79
Oklahoma 74
Louisville 73
Oklahoma 94
LSU97
LSU 83
Georgetown 82
Third place game
   
Army75
LSU 68

See also

References

  1. Al McGuire, 72, Coach, TV Analyst and Character, Dies - New York Times
  2. "Marquette takes NIT over NCAA bid". Great Falls Tribune . February 25, 1970. p. 11. Retrieved January 12, 2022 via Newspapers.com. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg