Memory Lane

[GardenCity62]

For the first dozen or so years the two tournaments were considered pretty even. Three times the winners of the two tunaments played a charitable game with the NCAA winner winning each game but most basketball experts thought the NIT had better fields. The NIT was attractive because many teams preferred a week in NYC to the NCAA cities.
This all changed in the early fifties. The NCAA expanded to 16 teams with 10 league champions forced to go NCAA and the point shaving scandal made MSG the place avoid. The NCAA winners of the mid fifties were Gola/ LaSalle , Russell/ USF, the undefeated NC team with basketball greats like the above and Chamberlain, Oscar, Baylor and West.Then Ohio St. with Lucas and Havlicek followed by UCLA with Alcindor and Walton.
The NIT had no teams like those but they had very competitive games with some very good players and every game played in MSG over a ten day period and the fans supported it. In 1975 the NCAA allowed teams that weren’t league champs to be invited and that was the beginning of the end for the NIT. They played only the semis and final in MSG and now there are no games in MSG.

 

[fan since 65]

For the first dozen or so years the two tournaments were considered pretty even. Three times the winners of the two tunaments played a charitable game with the NCAA winner winning each game but most basketball experts thought the NIT had better fields. The NIT was attractive because many teams preferred a week in NYC to the NCAA cities.
This all changed in the early fifties. The NCAA expanded to 16 teams with 10 league champions forced to go NCAA and the point shaving scandal made MSG the place avoid. The NCAA winners of the mid fifties were Gola/ LaSalle , Russell/ USF, the undefeated NC team with basketball greats like the above and Chamberlain, Oscar, Baylor and West.Then Ohio St. with Lucas and Havlicek followed by UCLA with Alcindor and Walton.
The NIT had no teams like those but they had very competitive games with some very good players and every game played in MSG over a ten day period and the fans supported it. In 1975 the NCAA allowed teams that weren’t league champs to be invited and that was the beginning of the end for the NIT. They played only the semis and final in MSG and now there are no games in MSG.

The NIT was owned by the local colleges (including us, obviously) up until the time the NCAA bought it. I used to get free tickets from SJU for the semis every year watching the NIT staff arriving in their official NIT sport jackets sitting courtside. I remember us getting three home games at AH when we really didn't deserve it just to insure human beings attending the games at MSG.

Of course, all memories are subject to correction based on age problems...

 

[fuchsia]

The NIT was owned by the local colleges (including us, obviously) up until the time the NCAA bought it. I used to get free tickets from SJU for the semis every year watching the NIT staff arriving in their official NIT sport jackets sitting courtside. I remember us getting three home games at AH when we really didn't deserve it just to insure human beings attending the games at MSG.

Of course, all memories are subject to correction based on age problems...

First time I took my sons to MSG was for semi-final game of NIT, Malik Sealy et al vs St. Louis.