The “other” post-season college basketball tournaments traditionally get attention for mostly negative reasons. And as the saying goes, some things never change.
The NIT, which is a year older than the NCAA Tournament, was taken over by the NCAA in 2005. The CBI (College Basketball Invitational) is a tier below the NIT. FOX Sports is debuting The Crown, a 16-team tournament in Las Vegas with its championship game held the day before the NCAA title game. That new tourney claimed a number of teams from the power conferences, which left the NIT to sift through the remains. And some teams left out of the NCAA field (Indiana, West Virginia) just decided to pack up their uniforms and call it a season.
What we had here was a failure to communicate. Teams were listed in NIT and CBI brackets that were posted on social media, and it was news for those teams. One team got good news then bad news, another got surprising news.
Sunday night, South Alabama coach Richie Riley was on a call with Sun Belt Conference commissioner Keith Gill and NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt. This was the conversation that Riley recounted to al.com reporter Craig Stephenson.
“(Gill) said ‘We’ve had something happen; do you guys want to be in the NIT?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, it’d be awesome,’” Riley said. “And so we talked for a few more minutes. I said ‘this is 100%, we’re in, right?’ And they said ‘yeah congratulations. I’m glad you were able to get in.’
“… I tell them, ‘I’m gonna tell my guys.’ They’re like ‘go ahead.’ So I tell the team.”
What happened is that UC-Riverside was on the NIT’s invitation list but had accepted a bid to the CBI. That left the opening for South Alabama. But UC-Riverside changed its mind and dropped the CBI to accept the more “prestigious” NIT bid. The “no take backs” rule apparently isn’t in the NCAA manual.
An hour after the first phone call, there was another with Riley, Gill and Gavitt. “Dan’s like, ‘No, UC Riverside is back in. I hate that we had to do this.’”
Gavitt’s official explanation, posted to social media, was classic cold-hearted corporate speak.
“After the NIT bracket was released Sunday evening, it was brought to the NIT’s attention that one of the teams scheduled to participate in the tournament has also committed to a non-NCAA affiliated postseason event. In an effort to secure another participating team, the NIT prematurely extended an invitation to the South Alabama Jaguars, prior to learning that the original team chose to accept its invitation to the NIT.
“Regrettably, the NIT rescinded its invitation to South Alabama. We understand the emotional impact this confusion created, and we sincerely apologize to South Alabama, head coach Richie Riley and all the student-athletes for the error.”
Gavitt’s attempt to soothe and smooth over the mistake only brought another heat check from Riley, who responded on X/Twitter.
“A meaningless apology to the most meaningful group of players I’ve ever coached! What they did to us last night is inexcusable! These guys in our locker room don’t deserve this and it’s sad your idea of making it right is a copy and paste apology!”
South Alabama athletic director Joel Erdmann issued this calmer but still pointed statement:
“We are disappointed that the NIT prematurely extended an invitation to our men’s basketball team to participate in this year’s tournament before confirming a spot was available. This was an avoidable situation that has made a negative impact on our student-athletes and coaches, so we appreciate and acknowledge the NIT’s apology.”
South Alabama went 21-11 overall and 13-5 in Sun Belt play and finished it a four-way tie with Troy, James Madison and Arkansas State for the regular-season title. The Jaguars lost to Arkansas State in the conference tournament semifinals.
Then, for an hour Sunday night, South Alabama players thought they had more basketball to play. Until they didn’t.
Wichita State, though, wound up happy that the NIT selection and notification process needs some work. The Shockers finished (so they thought) 19-14 and were ranked No. 134 in the NET. Coach Paul Mills said his athletic director had little hope Wichita State would be invited. It seemed fitting that the school’s spring break started Monday.
“I knew the info was coming out at 8:30, and I don’t know how to work Instagram, so I asked my teenage daughter to log in and let me know,” Mills told The Wichita Eagle. “She looked and said, ‘You’re on here.’ I’m like, ‘Stop playing.’ And she was like, ‘No, dad, you’re on here.’ So that’s how I learned how to navigate Instagram.”
Mills had to contact some of his players who had left campus because Wichita State had less than 48 hours to prepare for its NIT opener. The Shockers play at Oklahoma State Tuesday.
