Probably up until the late 70’s , the NIT was still considered a quality tournament and close to the NCAA in status . Close , not equal . Al McGuire gave the Rockaway Middle Finger to the NCAA with his Marquette team and used that to springboard into winning the NCAA later . Remember , and most of the current fan base may not , Al was a St John’s guy as was Brother , Dick , a outstanding HOF player . Loyalty in those days counted . So , it wasn’t hard for Al to choose MSG over Greensboro or ,,wherever . As for this year , the Team should play , if invited . But , it’s not likely to be much of a springboard to next season as we will lose Smith , Coburn , Champ , and who knows who else . Not playing Stanley at all last night seems ominous . The School has committed to playing, if invited . Players should not be able to veto .
NIT
- Thread starter 19854ever
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Both Cragg and Anderson have been clear they will accept if a bid comes. Cragg even put in a bid to host. If they get a bid pretty much anything can happen from there. It will be a field of teams SJU can play with, as long as they can gather themselves after what has been a rough year of close losses.
I think many of you will be upset with CMA if they do get a bid because I fully expect him to play to win if that occurs. In other words, he is not going to treat these games as scrimmages and all of a sudden play Pinzon and Stanley major minutes.
I think many of you will be upset with CMA if they do get a bid because I fully expect him to play to win if that occurs. In other words, he is not going to treat these games as scrimmages and all of a sudden play Pinzon and Stanley major minutes.
redmen4life
Well-known member
given how emotional our guys were last night, playing in the NIT seems further salt in the wound. our guys are emotionally spent. no need to get revved up for a useless tournament that nothing good can come from it.
Mullins Revenge
Well-known member
Spent from what? They werent even close to the bubble to get in the ncaa tourney. And for an automatic bid, they won 1 game when they had to win 4.redmen4life post=463329 said:
This team had about a 1% chance to dance. You cant be crushed when the 99% chance of happening happens.
They should be fired up to play in the NIT as that has been the only possibility for a while now.
beast of the east
Active member
Re-watch the end of last night's game. Our kids were openly crying. In the locker room many were sobbing. They gave every ounce of everything they had. If you've ever done that and failed, you know exactly how spent you'd be.Duke of Earlington post=463333 said:
Mullins Revenge
Well-known member
I get that but this team had 4 months to build an NCAA resume and failed. Beating Depaul, Nova, Uconn and Providence on consecutive nights was never going to happen.Beast of the East post=463337 said:
I understand being upset after the game, but as of this morning, they should be thrilled with an NIT invite and go try and win it.
Ray Morgan
Well-known member
I just don't get where this disdain for the NIT comes from. As players, you get a chance to end the season on a less disappointing note. You get to play with your teammates for at least one more time. Maybe even winning it all for your school. That vacated NIT won by St. John's when Hatten was here was very exciting for the players and the fans. If they get a NIT invite, they should happily accept it, and then give it their all-which they almost always do.
Give me a break. This team is NOT above the NIT, literally no team is because prior to last year everyone accepted for many consecutive years- including teams like UNC.
Had St. John's gone last year then maybe they would've had a better year this year. Certainly couldn't have been much worse. They choked in every big situation and could've used more big game experience. Yes, the NIT games are still big.
They were THREE ranked wins away from getting an at-large, not only one possession. This is just how the team has been all year. Time to turn things around next week... IF they're fortunate enough to be invited to the NIT then they will accept that opportunity. Any talk of the team not accepting is embarrassing and out of touch.
Had St. John's gone last year then maybe they would've had a better year this year. Certainly couldn't have been much worse. They choked in every big situation and could've used more big game experience. Yes, the NIT games are still big.
They were THREE ranked wins away from getting an at-large, not only one possession. This is just how the team has been all year. Time to turn things around next week... IF they're fortunate enough to be invited to the NIT then they will accept that opportunity. Any talk of the team not accepting is embarrassing and out of touch.
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Nobody associated with the program thinks this program is above the NIT. Some fans do, and that's their right. They won't go or watch on TV. And if a poster has zero interest and the team is invited, they have every right not to log on. They aren't a lock to be invited.
There's no issue here.
There's no issue here.
Mullins Revenge
Well-known member
I think teams that were close to the NCAA feel a letdown by playing in the NIT. We were never close as our resume and loss in the quarter finals of the BET show you.Ray Morgan post=463345 said:
If justice is done the NIT field this year should include Virginia, Michigan, Iona, Xavier, maybe Indiana, Syracuse if they take sub-.500 teams which I think they do now, a bunch of other brand-name schools. Would be a fun tournament if it goes that way, and not bad at all for SJU to show up and show out in. I'd love to see some Big East teams against the ACC and B1G teams in that tournament.
That year we were a 1 seed hosting the 8 seed auto-bid Robert Morris. I don't think there's any scenario this year where something like that could happen given at best we'd be a 4 seed hosting a 5 seed (would be an at-large team with a similar resume to ours).Paultzman post=463366 said: