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Season | 2020–21 | ||||
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Teams | 16 | ||||
Finals site | Comerica Center Frisco, Texas | ||||
Champions | Memphis Tigers (2nd title) | ||||
Runner-up | Mississippi State Bulldogs (1st title game) | ||||
Semifinalists |
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Winning coach | Penny Hardaway (1st title) | ||||
MVP | Landers Nolley II[1] (Memphis) | ||||
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The 2021 National Invitation Tournament was a single-elimination tournament of 16 NCAA Division I men's college basketball teams that had not been selected to participate in the 2021 NCAA tournament. The Tournament began on March 17 and ended on March 28. All rounds were played at the Comerica Center in Frisco, Texas or the UNT Coliseum in Denton, Texas. First-round games began on Wednesday, March 17, and was played through Saturday, March 20. Quarterfinals also took place Thursday, March 25. The semifinals and championship took place Saturday and Sunday, March 27 and 28. The 2021 tournament also featured a third-place game Sunday, March 28, which had not been played at the NIT since 2003. Also, the final game to be played was not the championship, but, rather, the third-place game.[2] This was the first NIT in which the semifinals and final were not played in New York City.