NIT Committee Overlooks Cagers; Quakers Meet Gamecocks Thursday

The National Invitation Tournament Selection Committee yesterday invited four more teams to compete in the N.I.T., and the Harvard basketball team, which finished the season with a 16-10 record, was not among them. The tournament begins this Saturday.

Duke, North Carolina, Louisville, and Purdue joined twelve other squads to complete the 16-team tournament slate.

The Crimson, which finished second in the Ivy League with an 11-3 record, could have been invited because of a ruling made last December by the Ivy Policy Committee that permitted Ivy League teams to participate in post-season tournaments like the N.I.T.

"Sure we would have liked to have been chosen, but I don't think that our record warranted it," Harvard head coach Bob Harrison said yesterday. "I think that if we could have reversed two of our losses we would have had a much better chance, but perhaps our being considered will give more incentive to next year's team," he said.

Harvard's 16-10 mark was the best win-loss percentage in 14 years, and its Ivy League record was the best ever by a Crimson basketball team.

In the NCAA playoffs this weekend, the two teams ranked number one and two at the start of the season, UCLA and Southern Carolina, both qualified for the NCAA regionals.

UCLA won the Pacific 8 title and a regional berth with a 73-62 victory over third-ranked Southern California. South Carolina barely qualified for the Eastern regional by edging North Carolina, 52-51, in an Atlantic Coast Conference playoff.

Ivy League representative Penn will meet the Gamecocks in the Eastern semifinals on Thursday.