Of the teams you listed, that I saw play, I definitely liked last seasons Furman, VCU, Charleston, Louisiana, Iona & UAB more than I liked Rutgers.
OT: Fox negotiating with BE/B12/B10 for LV post season tourney (top 16 that didn't make NCAA)
- Thread starter rutgersguy1
- Start date
I don't know who even watches the NIT. Probably gamblers. I haven't made a point of watching an NIT game since my school was in it and even then I didn't feel like watching it because it was a reminder that they weren't in the only tournament that matters.
Agreed. Have to view the games as being "bonus basketball" rather than part of a tournament that carries it's own cachet.
At any other point in the year, the average 1 v 16 NCAA matchup would be an OOC snoozer. A game between two major conference teams would almost always draw more interest absent the tournament brackets.
I think the average fan would rather tune in to a matchup between a .500 B1G vs. a .500 B12 rather than a matchup between North Texas and Sam Houston (2nd round NIT last season).
This sounds like a participation trophy tournament, getting invited strictly for being in a big conference like the NIT was for quite a few years. I would watch Rutgers in it because I'm a diehard RU fan, but wouldn't care much about it other than that.
More of a cash grab tournament, and a conference bragging rights tournament. I'd be just as likely to watch a match up between Oregon and Michigan as I would any other random Monday or Tuesday night during the season. I really wouldn't care who won the whole thing as much as how the mid/low teams of major conferences fared against each other.
You are speaking to the wrong fanbase . We love the NIT and celebrated losing in it in 2004! True story. People still talk about how great Geary waters was here because he lost in that tournament.
I can't even comprehend celebrating losing in the NIT.
When I read that I got depressed 😔
Yeah it’s true . The team collapsed down the stretch in 2004 and fell off the ncaa tournament bubble . Then they lost to a bad Virginia tech team twice - once in the regular season and gain in the big east tournament .
Then rutgers went to the NIT and made it to the final and lost to Michigan . It was a glorious time for the fans . Don’t believe me ? Start a thread on it and you will see everyone still talking about it and celebrating it.
In the NIT quarterfinals , we beat a bad Villanova coached jay wright team at the rac . Many rutgers fans were saying we hired the right guy in Gary waters and dodged a bullet by not getting wright !
You can’t make this absurdity up !
If Rutgers didn't get cheated out of a win at Ohio St. they'd have been in the tournament. That one still sticks in my craw.
Would you rather have a long run in the new hypothetical tourney or lose the first round of the NCAAs? (Will be the new stupid question.)
Instead of "would you rather" how about "which pays you more"?
Long term view is that this tournament might make a move on the big one eventually.
I think a lot of people were excited about the emergence of Douby, and thought great things were on the horizon. In the months following that NIT, Waters got commitments from Farmer/Inman/Griffin (where FIG got his handle), and people thought that we'd finally be back on our way to the NCAA tournament after more than a decade.
Then the next season was a collapse, finishing 10-19 with Adrian Hill missing the whole season with injury.
The next moment of hope came toward the end of 2005-06... with anticipation of Douby returning as a senior and the prospect of Lance Thomas committing. Then neither happened and Waters was canned in favor of a clown show in FHJ. Thomas didn't show much at Duke over four years, either.
Lots of better gamblers stay away from NIT as have no idea of something that can’t be quantified, motivation.
I suspect you are correct though.
For sure. The NCAA basically balances its books with the NCAAT money. If a private entity comes in and offers these schools a ton more money since they don’t have to use a lot of the money to run dozens of other NCAA tournaments for other sports mostly at a loss, the schools will jump at it. It would also probably kill the NCAA.
As a student who sat on the floor of the RAC lobby waiting for the ticket office to open and took the train to MSG for both games - it was the best kind of ridiculous.
