So the deal with Kevin Warren is that he retired, and as part of the Big Ten’s benefits package, he now gets to be the latest guy to help ruin the Chicago Bears (who are already thoroughly ruined, always, but let’s not get into technicalities). It’s quite a benefits package, that which the Big Ten is offering. It’s a remarkable benefits package.
Of course, that benefits package is now available to a new suitor. Kevin Warren cashed his out. It’s someone else’s turn. And we’re here to name candidates. Here’s the list, as we see it:
Pat Chambers
It would be a little odd, Chambers coming back to run a conference where one of the schools ran him out of town due to, among other things, a racially insensitive comment, but Warren was always a weirdo himself, don’t you think? The bottom line is that Pat Chambers won an NIT, and that will get you places.
Richard Pitino
The biggest persistent story in college basketball this season, according to some (it’s very hard to refute me when I say “according to some”), is the ongoing courtship of Rick Pitino by just about every down-on-its-luck men’s program in the nation, including many that are bound to be blogged about on this very site quite a bit these next few months. Perhaps, though, those “some” have been missing the mark. Maybe Richard Pitino—himself an NIT champion at Minnesota—is the real catch. You have to ask.
Ed DeChellis
Is Ed DeChellis still alive? You bet your ass he is. He’s the coach at Navy! Which will be perfect, because in addition to needing someone who won the NIT while the head coach at a Big Ten school, the Big Ten needs to win back those Kevin Warren alienated by trying to stop the 2020 college football season from happening, and what better angle for that than making a big deal about supporting the troops by hiring away their coach.
Thad Matta
Everybody thinks the conflict is Big Ten vs. SEC for the future of college sports, but given what’s happening over on the Seaboard (there’s a lot of cities over there, I assume there’s something happening in one of them), the Big East may be the greater threat. It’s time for the Big Ten to reclaim their own.
Tommy Amaker
This one feels oddly possible. Moving on.
Clem Haskins
The Big Ten, as the commercials will have us know, spreads all the way from Lincoln to Piscataway, and soon it will add Los Angeles to the mix. Who better to hold the league together than a man who starred in both Chicago and Washington during his NBA career? And, of course, someone who won an NIT while being the head coach at a Big Ten school. That’s a prerequisite. (Haskins won it twice, if we’re counting.)
Steve Fisher
It’s important for college conference commissioners to be ready when the NCAA comes sniffing, because soon, they’ll be the ones trying to protect those conferences from NCAA attempts to hold onto power. Is Steve Fisher’s great career’s last act destined to be taking his ultimate revenge on the sanctioning body whose meddling in the Ed Martin situation led to his firing? Who can say for sure.
Danny Nee
I don’t know if we count the guy who won the title at Nebraska as a Big Ten coach, but his time at the Merchant Marine Academy means his Wikipedia picture is him in front of a poorly green-screened flag, and that’s enough for me.
Eldon Miller
You want to be cinematic with your hiring. Always. No matter what industry you’re in. And what would be a better opening to this film than the Big Ten going down to Pembroke and calling Eldon Miller out of the Peach Belt Conference, where he’s currently volunteering (or was, as of 2009), and asking him to come save the conference he once led to such glory as an NIT title?
Bill Frieder
Bo Schembechler? Pretty sure he’s disgraced. Bring his nemesis back, Big Ten. Don’t worry about the point shaving. There was hardly any evidence there anyway, and how could Frieder have known? Also, point shaving is legal now. Right? I don’t see any laws against it.
Bob Knight
Come on. Do it.
Lefty Driesell
We’re back to the Nebraska question here, but this time with Maryland. I say we give Lefty a chance. You need someone who’s won a title. What if these other eleven say no?
*
Ok, I think that’s every living person who’s won an NIT as the head coach at a current Big Ten school. That’s the short list. The Big Ten can take it from here.
Shaka Smart
Shaka Smart, in his second year at basically–a–mid–major Marquette, is overachieving yet again. The Golden Eagles are tied for the Big East lead in wins, they’re in first place in vibes, and were Georgetown not a smoldering pit of ash and despair they’d have entered the season with the lowest expectations in the conference. I’m not saying this to make a point to the Big Ten. The Big Ten knows. I’m rubbing it in to Texas.
Memphis
Memphis retained NIT favoritehood last night despite a terrifying test from UCF, who took the Tigers to double overtime before ultimately beating them and saving their foe from a quality win. Elsewhere in the AAC, Tulane continues to torment us. They’re probably going to actually win this NIT. Guess they’re Having a Moment after all.
Attendance Records, Watch Out
So many Northwestern fans showed up last night to see the Wildcats narrowly lose to Rutgers that the arena staff had to find the keys to the upper deck. What a scene!
Wish List: Gonzaga
You know how Saint Mary’s made at least one NIT and possibly another they had no business making because they always lost at the precise wrong time? Gonzaga plays in the WCC too, committees. Just pointing that out. You could try something here.
**
Where this evening will take us:
7:00 PM EST: Michigan @ Iowa (ESPN2)
You can’t just give Michigan and Iowa Game of the NITe status. No matter how hard the Big Ten pushes. That said, this could be an NIT Championship preview, and that means my progeny could one day be blogging about Juwan Howard and Fran McCaffery as potential replacements for new Bears CEO Greg Gard.
9:00 PM EST: Southern Miss @ Marshall (ESPN2)
Shoutout to the Sun Belt! Everybody’s saying this is a Marshall/James Madison race, and to be clear, we’re saying that too, but we want them to at least earn it. Also: Did everyone know Dan D’Antoni was coaching Marshall? And has been for nine years? I knew they won the 2019 CIT, but I didn’t know Mike D’Antoni’s older brother was coaching the Herd. Guess that’s ‘cause he’s never made an NIT (as a coach—we all know about his two NIT appearances as a player, and how close he came to winning in 1967).
9:00 PM EST: Colorado @ USC (P12N)
9:00 PM EST: Arizona State @ Oregon (FS1)
9:30 PM EST: Gonzaga @ BYU
11:00 PM EST: Utah @ UCLA
The Game of the NITe? It’s Colorado/USC. Andy Enfield is in our window, Colorado’s beaten Tennessee and lost to Grambling State, it’s a very anything–can–happen kind of scene. Anything. Even nuclear fusion. So watch out, because that would be wild!
Elsewhere in the Pac-12, Arizona State and Oregon are playing the Michigan/Iowa game of the West, and Utah’s trying to keep on the straight and narrow but the allure of another shocking victory might prove too much. Don’t get too feisty.
Oh, and Gonzaga’s at BYU. BYU might make a push soon. Watch for BYU to make a push. Maybe tonight? Maybe a joint push? Wow. That would be something. We are always fighting a two-front war here in the NIT blogger kingdom.
9:00 PM EST: Senators @ Coyotes (ESPN+)
The deal with the Sens’ recent hot streak is that it hasn’t materialized. But! They get to play at ASU’s arena tonight. Surely that will turn it all around.
