The “great survivor” of college basketball continues as the National invitation Tournament has managed to re-establish its foothold, albeit with a bit different look in 2024. The NIT Final Four continues to experiment with a venue rotation like the MLB All-Star Game, landing this season at Indianapolis and Butler’s historic Hinkle Fieldhouse after popping up in Las Vegas at the Orleans Arena last year.
A good twist, this Hinkle venue, which harkens to the early days of college hoops. The NIT’s history actually began a year before (1938) the NCAA Tourney and for many years was considered the premier competition, partly based upon its visibility as the entire tourney used to be played at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
It was the “old Garden” until 1968 when the Dayton of Don May beat the Kansas of JoJo White in the first finale at the “new” MSG, 61-48, just a couple of weeks after the new Garden featured its first boxing show, a crackling double main-event with Italy’s Nino Benvenuti reclaiming the middleweight crown in a close majority decision over Emile Griffith, the co-feature on the same card that saw Joe Frazier KO Buster Mathis in the 11th round to became heavyweight champ…sort of, as only new York, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Maine would recognize Smokin’ Joe until he unified the title two years later by KO’ing WBA Champ Jimmy Ellis.
That 1968 was also the year that Bob Knight’s Army decided to bypass the Big Dance and play in the NIT instead, causing a bit of controversy (not the last time involving Knight). Though that tactic would come under more scrutiny two years later when Al McGuire’s 8th-ranked Marquette, featuring G Dean Meminger, opted for the NIT instead of the Big Dance after the NCAA was to place the then-called Warriors in the Midwest Regional (at Fort Worth) instead of the closer Mideast Regional (in Dayton).
Speaking of 1970, that particular NIT field might have been its best, and would thus include not only McGuire’s top ten Marquette but also the LSU of Pete Maravich, plus another fine Knight West Point entry along with Dean Smith’s North Carolina, just a year removed from back-to-back NCAA Final Four appearances, plus Lou Carnesecca’s St. John’s, among others.
CBS, which used to televise the NIT in those days, featured a nationally-televised first round game between Maravich’s LSU and Georgetown, one of the pre-John Thompson high-water marks for the Hoyas. LSU would survive 83-82 and make it to the semifinals before getting blown away by Marquette, while St John’s and Knight’s Army would wage a nailbiter in the other semi that ended in controversial fashion with the then-called Redmen a 60-59 winner.
Behind tourney MVP Meminger (who would move on to the NBA and the Knicks at the same MSG), McGuire’s Marquette would beat the future Big East foe Johnnies, 65-53, to claim the title. Meanwhile, the NCAA, which did not appreciate the snub from McGuire, would therefore decree that any team snubbing a Big Dance invite would be prohibited from playing anywhere else in the postseason.
We have also long believed that one of the great coaching achievements in college history came int he 1975 NIT when Pete Carril’s Ivy League Princeton would end up winning the NIT, topping Providence in the finale. But the mid 70s also marked the beginning of a gradual decline in the NIT as the NCAA would expand its tourney field to 32 in 1975 and open up invites to non-winners of conference titles, and a brief challenge in 1974-75 from a competing event, the Conference Commissioners Tournament, which was created for eight league runners-up and held in St. Louis.
Indiana, which participated under protest by Knight, a longtime NIT advocate, won the event over USC, 85-60, in 1974. Then Drake would win the following 1975 title over Arizona before the Commissioners Tourney ended its brief run.
After 1979, the NIT would move away from MSG, except for the Final Four, to campus sites. The New York connection endured into the Covid year of 2020, when the event was cancelled, and when it revived in a pandemic-altered 2021, the tourney was held in the DFW Metroplex before returning for a temporary curtain call at MSG in 2022. (MSG, as the spiritual home of the NIT, could return as a Final Four host in coming years.)
Now, the rotation takes the final quartet to Butler. Along the way, the NCAA purchased the tournament in 2005, ensuring its survival for the immediate future.