Stu’s Notes: What if the Opt-Outs Help the NIT?

I told myself not to talk about the opt-outs. I looked myself in the mirror and told myself, “No.” I went and confirmed the definition of the Streisand effect. Then ESPN put that graphic up last night listing 17 different teams who “declined NIT invitation.”

We got some clarity from one of the 17 today, St. Bonaventure. They said they were never officially invited but did express that they didn’t want to play. So that’s included in the definition. The NIT selection committee wasn’t sending a singing telegram to Olean and Corvallis and College Park and receiving “No” in response. They were checking on availability, and 17 teams told them no.

The teams break out into four categories.

Losers: Oklahoma, Memphis, Mississippi, Pitt, St. John’s, Syracuse, Indiana, Florida State, St. Bonaventure

These were the nine teams who should have been expecting the possibility of an NIT bid at the time their season ended and who decided not to accept one if it came. Florida State was going to be on the bubble, and St. Bonaventure was a longshot, but all nine of these had reason to be ready for an NIT possibility. They just didn’t want to play basketball.

Washington: Washington

Washington fired Mike Hopkins but said they were going to play, then backtracked a few days later. Our assumption there is that they lost some players and got spooked. Let’s also blame this for Troy Dannen skipping town. Couldn’t live with himself. Got scared of the curse.

Forgivable: Maryland

Maryland was below .500 overall this year, and that hasn’t gotten anyone an at-large bid in a really long time, if ever. They can be forgiven for not being ready.

The Pac-12: USC, UCLA, Stanford, Cal, Arizona State, Oregon State

Similarly, there was no reason for any of these six to expect a bid. Nor did the NIT expect them to accept. They were called as a formality, because the format the NIT adopted in response to the Fox Sports/Power Six pressure was one in which every power league gets two automatic bids, and the Pac-12 was only using one, Utah.

Of course, I have to curse all seventeen, which means I will lose seventeen portions of my soul, which is horribly troubling stuff. I will be shorthanded at the soul position going forward through the rest of my life. But my word is my word, and I must curse them unless I find a clever way out. But the curse will be tailored to the program in question. Oregon State’s been cursed enough.

We wanted to start with that because the graphic made the Pac-12 situation look worse than it was. Oregon State didn’t realize an NIT bid was a possibility until Saturday or Sunday. Of course they couldn’t get their players back on campus and ready to play. The rule needs to change such that every power conference gets two automatic bids offered to them, not two automatic bids period, but it was really only…well, shit. It was still ten teams if you take out those and Maryland.

And yet…

The basketball was pretty good last night, eh?

You guys liked it?

You enjoyed seeing Xavier come back from 23 down in Athens and Providence and Boston College playing neck and neck?

You had a good time with Payton Sandfort raining threes and Kansas State getting back in it and Iowa holding off the Cats?

You people thought it was cool how UCF and South Florida spent the second half on the verge of a fight and Minnesota and Butler went to the wire and North Texas blitzed LSU all NITe long?

We thought so.

The nice thing about getting the teams out of here who don’t want to play is that we don’t have situations where a team isn’t playing hard. Everyone was going all-out last night. Even Providence, who was sitting Devin Carter.

If we can get past the stigma of declined NIT bids, this might not be all that bad a thing.

Meanwhile, in the NCAA T*urnament

KEVIN MCCULLAR OPTED OUT!

KEVIN MCCULLAR OPTED OUT!

KEVIN MCCULLAR OPTED OUT!

KEVIN MCCULLAR OPTED OUT!

Yes, he has a bone bruise on his knee. Pretty painful stuff. But you think he wouldn’t be playing if this was 2007?

No, I don’t have evidence of this, no, I only maybe 50% believe it’s a good argument. But I kind of think Kevin McCullar opted out of the NCAA Tour*ament, and I want that on a graphic. The graphic can say:

PLAYERS WHO DECLINED NCAA TOU*NAMENT PARTICIPATION: MAYBE KEVIN MCCULLAR

Whole lot of rumors in KU circles a few weeks ago about McCullar vs. Self. Whole lot of rumors.

Seoul, Man

The Seoul Series is happening, and…it’s not even on ESPN? How did Major League Baseball wrangle that?

Unless I missed something this morning, the game in Korea was only broadcast on the Padres’ and Dodgers’ regional networks. That’s how I watched it. Was accidentally on the Padres’ feed, too, because I was half-asleep (until Joe Kelly came in throwing lightning and woke me the hell up). Given this, and given that I’ve seen no marketing from Major League Baseball for the series…

I think they actually don’t want us to know.

My thought here is this:

• The Korean series was on the books before MLB knew Ohtani would be a Dodger.
• The greatest baseball player ever debuting for the most prominent franchise in the sport should be a massive deal and should not be happening at 3:00 AM Dodger Time.
• Starting it later might have been worse. You cannot make the Korean fanbase watch a game at midnight Korean time just so Los Angeles can wake up. If you do that, the Korean outreach series loses its point. You also might get clowned even more, because the greatest baseball player ever debuting for the most prominent franchise in the sport should be a massive deal and should not be happening at 7:00 AM Dodger Time.
• You cannot schedule these games in July, because the travel is too much for the teams to return to action quickly.
• Nobody’s going to miss two games in a 162-game season.
• So, MLB decided to let it happen. Let it happen quietly. Let people be confused about whether it is or isn’t an exhibition. Let Opening Day feel like Opening Day, when they can make a big deal about Ohtani’s Dodger home debut.

Most of the time when MLB is struggling to market itself, it’s just doing a bad job.

I think this one might have been intentional.

The Rest

I have nothing else to say.

I think the Sens lost to the Bruins?

Joe Kelly has never allowed a run in the Eastern Hemisphere.

Joe Kelly caught a first pitch from a K-Pop star before one of the exhibitions.

Ok I had three things left to say.