2013 NIT: Tennessee Eliminated By Mercer

Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports

Playing in the NIT doesn’t come with the same excitement as the NCAA tournament, especially when you feel you should have been one of the 68 teams invited.

That fact was evident on Wednesday night when the Vols fell to the Mercer Bears 75-67.

Tennessee, still bitterly disappointed from their tournament snub, couldn’t overcome the Mercer Bear’s precise play on Wednesday night. The Bears will move on to face BYU in the second round of the NIT.

The Volunteers struggled shooting the ball and looked out of sync most of the game. Head coach Cuonzo Martin had a tall order in front him, trying to prepare what he thought was a tournament bound team for an opening round NIT game.

The Volunteers suffered a stressful weekend. After losing to Alabama on Friday, the Vols were forced to wait 48 hours to learn their fate. The stressful weekend drained the Vols emotionally, and it was evident in their play.

Outside of Jarnell Stokes and Trae Golden, the Volunteers never got into a rhythm offensively against Mercer. Stokes finished with a double-double, scoring 14 points and bringing down 13 rebounds. Golden scored a team high 20 points.

Guard Jordan McRae, who had a fantastic finish to the regular season, had his second straight off-game. McRae was 3-of-14 from the field, finishing with 7 points.

Mercer held Tennessee to 37% shooting for the game. The Bears shot 50% from the field. 

Tennessee couldn’t find a way to contain Travis Smith, the Bears leading scorer. Smith had 25 points on 7-0f-13 shooting, including 3 three-pointers. The Bears had four total players score in double figures, compared to only two for the Vols.

Tennessee finished the season with a 20-13 record. Cuonzo Martin is now 39-28 in his first two seasons as the Volunteer’s head coach.

The NIT loss will end the Vol careers of both Skylar McBee and Kenny Hall.

McBee, a Tennessee native, ends his run as a Volunteer with a career scoring average of 4.7 points a game.

Kenny Hall ends his career with a career scoring average of 4.4 points a game.

The Vols became the second SEC team knocked out of the 2013 NIT. The Kentucky Wildcats were eliminated on Tuesday night by Robert Morris.