One of the more baffling NIT omissions in 2018 was Maryland, who put together a generally rather ok résumé but went 0-10 against the RPI’s first quadrant (this was back in the RPI days), 1-2 against the RPI’s second quadrant, and wasn’t a noteworthy-enough program to be able to have an opt-out honored. The Terps were 18-13 against Division I foes, played a fine nonconference schedule, and…well yeah, their best road win was over Northwestern but Northwestern was almost .500 that year! Anyway, the Big Ten was bad, Maryland didn’t make it, we were all rather surprised, but it was more an odd anecdote than anything else.
It is no longer an anecdote.
It is costing the NIT.
Last night, Kevin Huerter led the Atlanta Hawks to an appearance in the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals. People are confused how he did it. I’m not. This is the same Kevin Huerter who once led his Maryland team to a 17-1 record against the RPI’s bottom two quadrants. This is the Kevin Huerter who should have been in the NIT. This is, to put it mildly, catastrophic news in our industry.
Thankfully, we still have Terance Mann. Probably some other guys, too. Need to get digging. But man. Could have had Huerter. Could have said: That’s NIT alum Kevin Huerter to you! all over Twitter last night.
