Nick King
The Blue Raiders had been having the greatest season in program history. They went into the final game of the regular season having won 16 of their last 17 games on the strength of All-American Nick King’s play. However, it became apparent that the Blue Raiders had peaked too early.
After a dominating victory over a quality Western Kentucky squad to tip-off March, Middle Tennessee fell to a less-than-impressive Marshall team. Despite Marshall ranking statistically as the worst defense in Conference USA, the Blue Raiders couldn’t sustain a rhythm on offense as they fell to the Thundering Herd 76–67.
It wasn’t a good look for the Blue Raiders if they needed to rely on an at-large bid to get into the tournament, but they were the heavy favorites to win the C-USA tournament anyhow. Unfortunately, a perfect storm would take place over the next week to completely alter the Blue Raiders’ season.
It started in the C-USA tournament. The Blue Raiders played ninth-seeded Southern Mississippi in their first game of the tournament. Despite having beaten the Golden Eagles by 20-point and 10-point margins in games during the regular season, MT again struggled to find its rhythm on offense. Southern Miss absolutely smothered the Blue Raiders with a highly-effective 2–3 zone defense, which limited Nick King to just five points in the first half. In the end, only King and Giddy Potts scored in double figures for the game.
Giddy Potts. Photos courtesy goblueraiders.com.
The Blue Raiders still had an outside chance at an at-large bid, but surprise automatic bids from the Atlantic 10 and Mountain West complicated things for teams hoping for at-large bids. Couple that with a few baffling decisions from the selection committee granting at-large bids to Power 5 teams (i.e. a 15-loss Alabama team and an Oklahoma team that went 2–8 over its last 10 games), and MTSU was NIT bound.
The 24–7 Blue Raiders get the No. 3 seed in the NIT, falling just behind top seed Baylor (18–14) and Louisville (20–13). Middle Tennessee will host sixth seed Vermont (27–7) Tuesday night, March 13, at 7 p.m. Tickets will be $10 for general admission.
