The Wildcats began this season hoping to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history.
After losing Wednesday, it will be a challenge to even make the NIT.
Finishing with a .500 record would make Northwestern eligible, but a postseason berth is far from guaranteed. Jack Powers, the National Invitation Tournament’s executive director, noted the Cats’ high Ratings Percentage Index ranking could hurt them. As of Feb. 27, NU is ranked 134 and the Big Ten is ranked sixth in the nation — not good signs.
“But you never know,” Powers said. “There are going to be a lot of surprises. There’ll be a lot of surprises for who gets into the NCAA Tournament, too.”
The Cats (14-14, 6-9 Big Ten) can qualify for the postseason if they win their season finale at Indiana — a difficult task, considering no Big Ten team has won at Assembly Hall this season. If the Cats lose, they’ll have to win two games in the conference tournament, something the team never has done.
But forget the either/or scenario. NU coach Bill Carmody said the Cats probably will need to do both — win at Indiana and two games in the Big Ten tournament — to garner an NIT bid.
“I think it’ll be difficult for us to get in this year,” he said.
NU is 2-3 in the NIT, winning first round games in 1983 and 1994, and losing in 1999.
First played in 1938 with six teams, the National Invitation Tournament is college basketball’s oldest postseason tournament (the NCAA came out with its version in 1939). While it plays second fiddle to March Madness, the tourney has grown through the years, expanding to 40 teams in 2002.
For teams that don’t qualify for the 65-team Big Dance, it’s the next best thing.
“What makes the tournament good is the NIT is there to serve teams that just unfortunately do not make the NCAA Tournament,” Powers said. “They play in a competitive tourney like the NIT to use it as a springboard for moving on to the Tournament the next year.”
While the Cats would be happy going to the NIT, for some the tourney is a mere afterthought.
“No one sets a goal to make the NIT,” Indiana guard Marshall Strickland said. “If you set any goal, it’ll be to make the NCAA Tournament. If we don’t and we make the NIT, then we’ll go and play ball.”
The Hoosiers, at 14-12 and 9-6 in the Big Ten, still are clinging to a slim chance of making the NCAA Tournament. If they don’t, the NIT will have to suffice as a consolation.
Which isn’t a bad thing, said Michigan coach Tommy Amaker, whose team won the NIT last year.
“I think it’s a significant achievement if you can participate in it,” Amaker said. “And certainly if you advance within the postseason tournament, I think it gives your program more stature and the look of success and growing, and that was the thing that happened to us.”
To be one of the few Division I teams to finish the season with a win was “a great accomplishment,” Michigan center Graham Brown said.
NU swingman Tim Doyle also knows that feeling of victory. As a freshman in 2003, his St. John’s team won five games by 10 points or fewer to capture the NIT crown.
“It was a wonderful experience,” Doyle said.
Doyle grew up in Merrick, N.Y., about 30 to 40 minutes from Madison Square Garden, the historic Manhattan arena that’s inextricably linked with the NIT. The Garden has been the site of the tournament’s semifinals and finals every year since 1968, and before that, the “old” MSG hosted the tourney.
It’s all part of the NIT experience — one that, though overshadowed by March Madness, Amaker said still matters.
“Any time you can participate in the postseason, it’s a significant achievement,” Amaker said. “(Winning last year) was a national title for our team and our program, and we’re going to hang a banner. We’re very proud of it.”
Reach Anthony Tao at [email protected].
