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Former head basketball coach Tom Crean went viral on Selection Sunday for an impassioned rant on the state of the NIT. In that tirade, he ripped programs turning down the opportunity to play in the once prestigious postseason tournament.
Unfortunately, those words rang hypocritical shortly thereafter due to past decision from Crean’s coaching days.
The NIT was once college basketball’s top invitational, in many cases played to determine the sport’s national champion. A shift to the NCAA Tournament began to take form in the 1960s, but the NIT still held a place due to its ability to attract notable talent while being played in historic Madison Square Garden.
Fast forward to today, and that reputation has taken a major hit.
Teams who miss out on the opportunity to play in the Big Dance are now turning away NIT invites rather than competing for a postseason championship.
Much like we’ve seen in college football’s bowl season, opt outs are becoming the new norm for those without a national title on the line. In football’s case, though, we see star players choose to sit out while their teams continue to compete on the field.
In basketball, we’re losing entire squads altogether.
There are legitimate reasons, both on the side of the coach and player. Most revolve around the transfer portal window, which opens the day after Selection Sunday.
Let me be clear: it’s an absolute travesty that the transfer portal in college basketball opens tomorrow. It takes away from literally the best week of the year in the sport. At least give it a week and let the tournament have our undivided attention. The portal is toxic. Enough!
— John Fanta (@John_Fanta) March 18, 2024
Players that don’t plan on being with their current team next season want an early jump on testing the market and securing major NIL deals with new programs. Coaches needing to rebuild their rosters would rather end the season and recruit instead of playing what they see as meaningless contests.
This year, some of those major NIT opt outs include St. John’s, Ole Miss, Indiana, and Pittsburgh – each of whom just missed out on March Madness.
Tom Crean blasted those declining NIT invites.
Tom Crean (@TomCrean) just went in on teams electing not to play in the NIT. And he’s spot on. pic.twitter.com/FOk1cUJ81i
— Dave Connelly (@DaveConnellySG) March 18, 2024
“There’s plenty of time to talk to recruits. There’s plenty of time to negotiate NIL deals,” Crean led off. “There’s not plenty of time to play… It’s each coach’s choice, I get it, but if you take away the chance to play the games to put your teams on the floor – let ’em opt out – the bowl season has it all the time…
“If a guy doesn’t wanna play, go sit down. If a coach doesn’t want to coach, go recruit. But there’s got to be enough people to put five, six, seven players on the floor and go play. Makes absolutely zero sense.”
Many believed those words to be spot on. Unfortunately, for Tom Crean, he was once one of those coaches turning away a postseason invite.
Indiana turned down the CBI in 2014.
While the CBI is on a lower level than the NIT, Crean’s point about playing the games when given the opportunity seems hypocritical.
“We’re Indiana. We don’t play in the CBI.”
The Hoosiers didn’t even have the transfer portal to use as an excuse! They just believed they were too good a program to be competing in what they believed to be a lowly postseason event.
As for the NIT, until the transfer window is changed, this will likely be an unfortunate drawback of the recruiting schedule. It’s now become NCAA Tournament or bust!