Tonight the illustrious Ohio State basketball team will take on UMass for the title of the Not Invited Tournament, the Not Interesting Tournament, or the National Invitation Tournament.  And i am excited for it!

Look, here’s the sad part: people forget that the last time Ohio State won a national title, 1960, the NIT was considered by many to be the top tournament around. It was simply that the NCAA tournament crowned the national champion because it was sponsored by the NCAA. Even in 1966 when Don Haskins lead Texas Western to the title with an all-black starting lineup the historical significance was diminished due to the presence of the other tournament. even until the mid 1970s some still made the argument for the NIT. The expansion to 32 teams in 1975 put the NCAA on top and the expansion to 64 in 1985 killed the NIT. Today, many of my friends who are casual sports fans had never heard of the NIT until the Buckeyes were selected this year.

The point is that the NIT does happen to have a rich history and it is NOT a competition for the 66th best team in the country. OSU could easily beat any 12-16 seed team in the tournament, teams that recieved automatic bids from smaller conferences. Clearly, the NIT is still a joke. I agree that it brings no glory and that nobody outside of Columbus and New England will watch this game tonight. but, as a fan of basketball, i prefer this to a first or second round exit in the big dance.

1. as a high seed we got to play games at home, which actually brought some life to the basketball fanbase in columbus. the Dayton game, with a quarter of the crowd in blue and red, was electric. fans couldnt hear themselves think at the Cal game in St. John’s arena. personally, i wish the buckeyes played every game there.

2. we are today one of four d-1 teams still playing college basketball. this gives us time to develop our young players and allows them to gain confidence for what is hopefully a deep run in the real tournament next year

3. the team gets to go to Madison Square Garden and the bright lights of NYC instead of bowing out in some gym in Topica, Kansas after losing by 20 to a top 10 team.

4. we get to watch a winner against some great competition (later in the tournament). these top seeds are all teams that could have made the tournament with just one more quality win.

basically, i love watching my team win. i think thad matta will be able to instill more confidence next year with a win tonight rather than a blowout loss two weeks ago. too bad we’re not facing florida again…