Over the 32 days leading up to college basketball season, we’ve been profiling 32 different teams who could be in the NIT mix, aided in this effort by those who know them best (or the closest we could get). Today, Mark Titus responds by email to our questions about Ohio State.
Mark Titus is, most importantly, an NIT champion, a member of the 2008 Ohio State Buckeyes team that won it all. He’s also an acclaimed author, blogger, and host of Mostly Sports and The Mark Titus Show, both at Barstool Sports.
Here’s the full list of 32 for 32’s published so far, with links:
- Auburn, with the Sickos CBB Committee
- BYU, with Mitch Harper
- Cincinnati, with Zach Fries
- Dayton, with Tyler Cronin
- Duquesne, with Tristan Freeman
- Indiana, with Matt Cox
- Iona, with Sam Federman
- Iowa State, with Joe Stunardi
- James Madison, with Bennett Conlin
- Loyola, with Ky McKeon
- Michigan, with the Sickos CBB Committee
- Missouri, with Jim Root
- North Texas, with Harry Miers
- Northwestern, with John Templon
- Notre Dame, with Stuart McGrath
- Ohio State, with Mark Titus
- Oregon State, with Andy Dieckhoff
- Penn State, with DJ Bauer
- South Carolina, with Brian Rauf
- St. Bonaventure, with SBUnfurled
- St. John’s, with the Sickos CBB Committee
- Syracuse, with the Marshall Street Podcast
- Texas, with NIT Stu
- Utah, with Andrew Crowley
- Virginia Tech, with Ken Pomeroy
- Washington State, with Dave Andersen
- Wisconsin, with Cole Amundson
The Barking Crow: Addressing the elephant in the email, you are an NIT champion, and to my knowledge you are the only NIT champion doing one of these interviews. What’s it like to know, every day of your life, that you reached that particular mountaintop?
You know, it’s funny. Most people assume that winning the NIT means a life full of fame and riches, and that I can’t go anywhere in public without men wanting to take pictures with me and women wanting to take me home with them. In reality, those people are correct.
TBC: This year, Ohio State’s NIT quest begins in an awkward place. While good enough (and bad enough) to play in last year’s NIT, the Buckeyes failed to meet the committee’s criteria, in that they lost a ton of games. What must this team do to be better enough from last year that they make the NIT, but not so much better that they miss it on the high side?
Last season’s Buckeyes had the right idea: Be a good basketball team, but do not actually win games. They just took it a little too far. Now that the NIT criteria has changed, though, I don’t think we really need to do anything different this year. As long as we keep stacking up losses while somehow still climbing up the KenPom rankings — and most importantly, as long as Ohio State is once again the top revenue earning athletic department in college sports — the committee won’t be able to resist us.
TBC: Malaki Branham. D’Angelo Russell. Mark Titus. These are just a few recent Buckeyes who have declared for an NBA Draft and been in attendance at an NBA Draft’s first round. Is there anyone on this season’s roster you think could carry on that proud tradition?
It really is an Ohio State basketball tradition like any other: A perimeter player who, at the start of the season, was expected to stick around for another year or two, plays so well that he declares for the draft and kills any hype I had for the following season. With that in mind, let me just preemptively say that I am very happy for Scotty Middleton and his family, I can’t wait to see him kill it in the NBA, and I’m definitely not sad at the thought of how good the 2024-25 Buckeyes could have been if he stayed for his sophomore season.
TBC: Your 2008 title is not the only NIT Championship Ohio State has won. You guys also took the crown in 1986, famously holding off an inspired effort from Ohio in the opening round. If the 2008 and 1986 teams played head-to-head and both were in their prime, who would win?
I’ll go with the one that didn’t have Jon “supposedly the best 3-point shooter in Big Ten history even though Thad Matta is on record as saying Mark Titus is the best shooter he coached at Ohio State” Diebler shoot 29% from the 3-point line. (As an aside, I’ll never understand why Jon’s nickname didn’t stick. I always thought it was one of the better nicknames in sports.)
TBC: This year’s NIT Final Four is at Hinkle Fieldhouse, somewhere I was disappointed to learn no longer hosts the IHSAA State Championship in boys basketball (I watched Hoosiers a LOT as a kid). Respectfully: What the hell?
In 49 states it’s just capitulating to the almighty dollar by sucking the charm out of an iconic event and moving it to a bigger venue to accommodate larger crowds and corporate interests. But this is Indiana!
TBC: With the Final Four in Indianapolis, within driving distance from Ohio State, where would you say the Buckeyes rank as an attendance draw for this year’s NIT? We’d imagine Indiana tops the list, but how strong of an atmosphere would an Ohio State NIT run produce at Hinkle Fieldhouse?
These are the facts: In 2008, Ohio State made the NIT semifinals in New York for the first time in 20 years. Also, New York was the #1 most visited city in North America in 2008. Coincidence? I’ll let you decide.
TBC: Dare we dream of an Ohio State NIT title?
I think Edgar Allan Poe said it best: “All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.”
Emphasis, of course, on “I think.” The truth is that I have no idea what the hell that quote even means.
