The bracket for the 2011 NIT Tournament has been announced, and one name that we expected to hear has not been called. The Maryland Terrapins will not be playing postseason basketball this year, as they've been left out of the NIT bracket.
They finished seventh in the ACC, with an overall record of 19-14 and a 7-9 ACC record. Meanwhile, the Miami Hurricanes earned a No. 2 seed in the NIT while finishing with the same overall record, but one game behind the Terps in conference play. Miami could have been helped by their buzzer beater loss to the North Carolina Tar Heels in the ACC Tournament, along with the fact that they beat Maryland by 14 points in the teams' only meeting this year.
Of course its also possible that Gary Williams simply declined an invitation to participate in the NIT, but we doubt it. Why pass up an opportunity to get his young team some postseason experience? No, we don't think Maryland declined an invitation. We think they just got flat out snubbed.