INDIANAPOLIS – There was no room in the NCAA Tournament for these men or women. But they have come here with fire in their game because all you need are two hoops, a ball and maybe a trophy to win and the blood gets pumping in March and April.
This is the headquarters of those left out. The inaugural Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament, the men’s NIT, both in hallowed Hinkle Fieldhouse. The Big Dance, it ain’t. But it’s a week of hard and honest labor to win something in a place that cherishes the game. There are worse ways for teams to spend the early days of April.
“Any postseason’s great,” said Villanova guard Lucy Olsen of the Wildcats trying to win the inaugural WBIT. “You can only be the first once, so I think it would be awesome.”
While the men’s and women’s Final Fours will soon be making thunder, here are two days on a less glitzy stage. But it’s still April in college basketball.
MONDAY
The men’s teams practice in the morning. That includes Seton Hall, who some believe was the most unjust victim of Selection Sunday. With each passing Connecticut rout in the NCAA Tournament, one of the Pirates’ season victories grows more glorious. They beat the Huskies by 15 points. That wasn’t enough to get them in the door.
“Talking about the NIT, we said if we were going to partake in this that we were going to go far with it and give it our best shot,” says guard Al-Amir Dawes. “And now that we're here, we're truly blessed. We are all just taking it a step at a time, trying to bring the hardware home.”
🏀 2024 NIT TOURNAMENT: Schedule, TV channels for the men’s tournament
Seton Hall will meet Georgia, a team that finished 11th in the SEC with a 17-16 regular-season record but perked up to defeat Xavier, Wake Forest and Ohio State in the NIT, the last two on the road. Bulldogs coach Mike White mentions how “Seton Hall had a really strong argument to play in that other tournament.” Like all coaches still busy in the NIT or that other tournament, White is keeping at least part of one eye on the transfer portal as he prepares his team. “We are all multi-tasking,” he says.
The other game will have Utah against Indiana State, whose campus is under 90 minutes away. Once the Sycamores qualified for Indianapolis, Tuesday night was sold out in hours. But coach Josh Schertz is guessing Indiana State’s most famous alum, Larry Bird, will not be in attendance. “I think it's just he's a very private guy. I think that for him, it is just trying to stay in the background and allow this team to have its own spotlight where he wouldn't detract from it.”
It’s been this kind of month for the Beehive State: Utah State had to play Purdue in the second round of the NCAA Tournament six miles down the road in downtown Indianapolis at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. It ended 106-67. Now Utah State faces the Indiana State throng in Hinkle. But the Utes don’t seem to mind the challenge. Big crowds beat dull arenas any day, even with the assembly against you. “It’s going to be fun,” said Gabe Madsen. “Obviously, a road game. I've got like 12 people coming so this should balance it out.”
Utah coach Craig Smith knows the math of March survival. “There are 362 teams in Division I men’s basketball. and there’s eight teams still standing,” he says, counting the NCAA and NIT. Plus, since he’s s very big on basketball history, he’s relishing playing in Hinkle Fieldhouse. Like most coaches, he has seen the ultimate hoop movie "Hoosiers," with its iconic scenes shot at Hinkle, such as when the coach – Gene Hackman’s character -- pulls out a tape measure and has his players check the height of the basket and the distance from the free throw line to prove they’re the same as their small gym back home. And like most players in 2024, the Utes have little idea what he’s talking about.
👉 BRACKET: Take a look at the complete 2024 NIT bracket
“You walk in and guys are kind of looking around because it's such a unique venue,” Smith says. “I asked Lawson Lovering, `Hey, you got the tape measure?’ He looked at me kind of like, no. I said, `Lawson, have you seen 'Hoosiers?'’ He was like, no. I asked Luka Tarlac from Serbia. `Luka, do you have the tape measure?’ No, what are you talking about?’
“Should have shown it.”
At 2:30 p.m. the WBIT semis begin. Sparse weekday crowd but the pep bands are here. Villanova holds off Penn State 58-53 in a lively all-Pennsylvania affair that has 12 lead changes in the first 13 minutes. Illinois dispatches Washington State 81-58. Lots of orange in the stands since Champaign is an easy drive from here. So it’ll be Villanova and Illinois Wednesday night for the first WBIT title. “We talk about making history,” the Illini’s Adalia McKenzie says.
You don’t have to be in Cleveland or Glendale this week to do that.
TUESDAY
Three things to know about Indiana State. One, of the eight men’s teams left in the NCAA and NIT tournaments, the Sycamores are the only mid-major. “We kind of just see ourselves as one of the final eight teams,” star Robbie Avila says. Two, while everyone thinks of Bird when Indiana State basketball is mentioned, 78 years ago the school hired a young coach whose name might also ring a bell. Indiana State gave John Wooden his first college job in 1946. And three, the Sycamore fans are hyped for the NIT. Utah's supporters in red are a small pond in a sea of Indiana State blue.
The Sycamores win a highly entertaining fireworks show 100-90, both teams combining to shoot 54.6 percent with 29 3-pointers made, 42 assists dispensed and only 16 turnovers committed. When the last seconds tick away, the Indiana State crowd noise explodes. It seems pretty much a lock the house will be full for Thursday night’s championship game. The Sycamores are getting further away from the anguish of early March, when they rallied from 18 points down to tie Drake in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament championship game but lost 84-80, then never heard their name called Selection Sunday.
“It's inspiring to me,” Schertz says. “I'm amazed watching them. If you would have seen them on Monday afternoon after Selection Sunday, I don't know if I've ever seen a sadder, more devastated group than this one . . . They get heartbreak, lose that game (to Drake), lose a piece of our heart. We don't get into the tournament.
“They always say, the true measure of who somebody is, is how they respond when things don't go their way, right? I think that true measure of who you are applies to our fans, as well. They didn't treat this NIT like some sort of consolation prize or 'we don't care anymore, we didn't make the tournament.'They have responded just like our team's responded . . . to something that was obviously devastatingly disappointing.”
⛹️♂️ Inside Indiana State's meaningful journey to the NIT semifinals
In the second game Seton Hall steamrolls Georgia 84-67 in a much emptier Hinkle Fieldhouse. The Pirates won their last NIT game against UNLV 91-68. They’re starting to sound like Big East pal Connecticut in that other tournament. “It would have been so easy for us to put our heads down and mope because of what happened, but these guys stuck with it,” coach Shaheen Holloway says. “I guess we are still showing the world that Seton Hall is a really, really good team.”
So, it’ll be Indiana State and Seton Hall Thursday and somehow that feels right. The two teams who drew the most sympathy as being snubbed on Selection Sunday have gone the distance in the NIT. “I think it's a lot to say about the coaches and the players and the character and culture of what both teams are trying to build,” Holloway says. “I was in my locker room when (Indiana State) came out. I heard how they were celebrating and how they’re happy to be here, so that says a lot about their program and their coach.”
Same for Schertz: “It shows the character of both groups to take that disappointment and channel it and be able to use it as motivation to get through this thing. It’ll probably be a fitting ending to the NIT and certainly with the way the Big East has performed and hopefully, the way that we’ve performed has shown we probably should have been in the NCAA Tournament. But now we get the chance to win our last game. Only two teams in the country are going to do that.”
There was also the CBI and CIT but his point was made.
Men, women, they’re playing for keeps this week in Indianapolis.
