Athens native Giddy Potts will close out his college basketball career in the National Invitation Tournament after Middle Tennessee State was not selected to receive an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament.

The Blue Raiders were the regular season champions of Conference USA with a 16-2 league record, but were upset by Southern Miss in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament. Only the conference tournament champion receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, which went to Marshall, after the Thundering Herd defeated Western Kentucky in Saturday’s tournament championship game.

After the disappointment of not being selected to participate in the NCAA Tournament, the Blue Raiders learned they would still have postseason basketball, as MTSU will be a 3 seed in one region of the NIT.

Middle Tennessee will face No. 6 seed Vermont today at 7 p.m. in the first round of the tournament. The game will be televised on ESPNU. In the first three rounds of the 32-team NIT, the better seeded team hosts the game, so MTSU will play at home in the first round. Should the Blue Raiders defeat Vermont, they would play either No. 2 seed Louisville or No. 7 seed Northern Kentucky in the second round.

The semifinals and finals of the NIT are played at New York City’s Madison Square Garden.

Potts needs only one victory in the NIT to become the winningest player in Middle Tennessee State men’s basketball history. The senior from Athens High School is the team’s second-leading scorer, averaging nearly 13 points per game.