The NCAA reported today that none of the 68 invited teams withdrew before today's deadline.

This means none of the "first four out" alternate teams - Louisville, Ole Miss, Colorado State and Saint Louis - will play in the tournament. From this point forward, if a team has to withdraw because of the virus, the team they were scheduled to play gets a "walkover" win and advances to the next round.

(03-17-2021 02:35 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  The NCAA reported today that none of the 68 invited teams withdrew before today's deadline.

This means none of the "last four out" alternate teams - Louisville, Ole Miss, Colorado State and Saint Louis - will play in the tournament. From this point forward, if a team has to withdraw because of the virus, the team they were scheduled to play gets a "walkover" win and advances to the next round.

So are the last four in the NIT?

(03-17-2021 02:50 PM)ken d Wrote:  

(03-17-2021 02:35 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  The NCAA reported today that none of the 68 invited teams withdrew before today's deadline.

This means none of the "last four out" alternate teams - Louisville, Ole Miss, Colorado State and Saint Louis - will play in the tournament. From this point forward, if a team has to withdraw because of the virus, the team they were scheduled to play gets a "walkover" win and advances to the next round.

So are the last four in the NIT?

I think 3 are- Louisville isn't.

(03-17-2021 02:50 PM)ken d Wrote:  

(03-17-2021 02:35 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  The NCAA reported today that none of the 68 invited teams withdrew before today's deadline.

This means none of the "last four out" alternate teams - Louisville, Ole Miss, Colorado State and Saint Louis - will play in the tournament. From this point forward, if a team has to withdraw because of the virus, the team they were scheduled to play gets a "walkover" win and advances to the next round.

So are the last four in the NIT?

Louisville gambled that they would get a replacement slot and declined the NIT bid

The other three didn't decline NIT bid and will be playing as 1 seeds (along with Memphis)

Did the teams have to decide to not play in the NIT in order to be considered for replacement for NCAA teams?

(03-17-2021 03:04 PM)schmolik Wrote:  Did the teams have to decide to not play in the NIT in order to be considered for replacement for NCAA teams?

nope. Colorado St, Saint Louis, and Ole Miss are in the NIT but were teams 2-4 on the next up list. If they had gotten selected, someone else would have gone to the NIT.

As many of you know, I'm rooting for either North Carolina or Georgetown to win the whole thing. But if either is crowned the national champ after having played no games — due to all its would-have-been foes forfeiting because of the virus — I would struggle to get even remotely excited. That's an insane hypothetical, admittedly, but ...

Let's hope that every game is played. Because if even only one game is not played — the entire tourney will have been cheapened.

(03-17-2021 03:21 PM)bill dazzle Wrote:  As many of you know, I'm rooting for either North Carolina or Georgetown to win the whole thing. But if either is crowned the national champ after having played no games — due to all its would-have-been foes forfeiting because of the virus — I would struggle to get even remotely excited. That's an insane hypothetical, admittedly, but ...

Let's hope that every game is played. Because if even only one game is not played — the entire tourney will have been cheapened.

We all hope that all games can be played, but IMO a few cancellations will not cheapen the tournament. We’re in the midst of a pandemic, there is an appropriate bias towards safety...so a few games may be cancelled. If someone wins the whole tournament with multiple free passes, then we may have an issue.

I was bummed with UVA’s cancellation in the ACC tournament, but Georgia Tech is the legitimate ACC champion.

(03-17-2021 05:01 PM)Wahoowa84 Wrote:  

(03-17-2021 03:21 PM)bill dazzle Wrote:  As many of you know, I'm rooting for either North Carolina or Georgetown to win the whole thing. But if either is crowned the national champ after having played no games — due to all its would-have-been foes forfeiting because of the virus — I would struggle to get even remotely excited. That's an insane hypothetical, admittedly, but ...

Let's hope that every game is played. Because if even only one game is not played — the entire tourney will have been cheapened.

We all hope that all games can be played, but IMO a few cancellations will not cheapen the tournament. We’re in the midst of a pandemic, there is an appropriate bias towards safety...so a few games may be cancelled. If someone wins the whole tournament with multiple free passes, then we may have an issue.

I was bummed with UVA’s cancellation in the ACC tournament, but Georgia Tech is the legitimate ACC champion.

Agreed.
If a school has shown up every week with no covid issues and they win it all, no way we can take anything away from them. All teams are responsible for their own safety measures they put in place. All teams are facing the same challenges.

(03-17-2021 05:01 PM)Wahoowa84 Wrote:  

(03-17-2021 03:21 PM)bill dazzle Wrote:  As many of you know, I'm rooting for either North Carolina or Georgetown to win the whole thing. But if either is crowned the national champ after having played no games — due to all its would-have-been foes forfeiting because of the virus — I would struggle to get even remotely excited. That's an insane hypothetical, admittedly, but ...

Let's hope that every game is played. Because if even only one game is not played — the entire tourney will have been cheapened.

We all hope that all games can be played, but IMO a few cancellations will not cheapen the tournament. We’re in the midst of a pandemic, there is an appropriate bias towards safety...so a few games may be cancelled. If someone wins the whole tournament with multiple free passes, then we may have an issue.

I was bummed with UVA’s cancellation in the ACC tournament, but Georgia Tech is the legitimate ACC champion.

I agree. Heck, nobody questions that Ohio State is this past season's B1G football champ, even though they only played half the games they usually do.

If an extreme situation arises where one team is carried to the title by several cancelations, then yes, that would be tainted. But isolated cancelations here and there throughout the draw will not impact my sense of legitimacy about the winner at all.

(03-17-2021 03:02 PM)dbackjon Wrote:  

(03-17-2021 02:50 PM)ken d Wrote:  

(03-17-2021 02:35 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  The NCAA reported today that none of the 68 invited teams withdrew before today's deadline.

This means none of the "last four out" alternate teams - Louisville, Ole Miss, Colorado State and Saint Louis - will play in the tournament. From this point forward, if a team has to withdraw because of the virus, the team they were scheduled to play gets a "walkover" win and advances to the next round.

So are the last four in the NIT?

Louisville gambled that they would get a replacement slot and declined the NIT bid

The other three didn't decline NIT bid and will be playing as 1 seeds (along with Memphis)

Louisville didn't gamble squat. They chose not to play in the meaningless Not Invited Tournament during a pandemic. Personally, I'm not sure why any school would travel and put their students at risk for a long irrelevant tourney.
The conference tourneys should've been canceled as well.

(03-17-2021 08:27 PM)BatonRougeEscapee Wrote:  

(03-17-2021 03:02 PM)dbackjon Wrote:  

(03-17-2021 02:50 PM)ken d Wrote:  

(03-17-2021 02:35 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  The NCAA reported today that none of the 68 invited teams withdrew before today's deadline.

This means none of the "last four out" alternate teams - Louisville, Ole Miss, Colorado State and Saint Louis - will play in the tournament. From this point forward, if a team has to withdraw because of the virus, the team they were scheduled to play gets a "walkover" win and advances to the next round.

So are the last four in the NIT?

Louisville gambled that they would get a replacement slot and declined the NIT bid

The other three didn't decline NIT bid and will be playing as 1 seeds (along with Memphis)

Louisville didn't gamble squat. They chose not to play in the meaningless Not Invited Tournament during a pandemic. Personally, I'm not sure why any school would travel and put their students at risk for a long irrelevant tourney.
The conference tourneys should've been canceled as well.

You think the students are more "at risk" traveling to and from a hoops tournament - an event where precautions are going to be taken at every step to avoid catching the virus - than doing whatever they'd be doing back at home during the same time?

Obviously one big difference with this year's NIT and others is the entire tournament is in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. For Louisville to win the NIT, they'd have to spend a week and a half down there mostly isolated/quarantined, etc for an NIT title which by Louisville standards means almost nothing. In a normal year, Louisville, as the #1 overall seed in the NIT, would get to host several games at the KFC Yum Center to full capacity crowds (assuming they keep winning). Louisville wasn't the only team to turn down the NIT. Duke obviously said no (they already had COVID-19 cases last week) as well as three Big East teams, Xavier, Seton Hall, and St. John's. https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ncaabk/...xbndlbing. Don't forget basketball teams have gone the entire season trying to "stay out of trouble" just like the football teams have. It gets exhausting. Who isn't exhausted from the pandemic? Look at how many schools opted out of bowl games this year, even schools where football is huge like Nebraska and Virginia Tech? The players are tired, the coaches are tired, it's just not worth it. For some schools, an NIT title just isn't worth it this year. It might not even be they're afraid of COVID-19, they're just exhausted.

(03-18-2021 05:48 AM)schmolik Wrote:  Obviously one big difference with this year's NIT and others is the entire tournament is in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. For Louisville to win the NIT, they'd have to spend a week and a half down there mostly isolated/quarantined, etc for an NIT title which by Louisville standards means almost nothing. In a normal year, Louisville, as the #1 overall seed in the NIT, would get to host several games at the KFC Yum Center to full capacity crowds (assuming they keep winning). Louisville wasn't the only team to turn down the NIT. Duke obviously said no (they already had COVID-19 cases last week) as well as three Big East teams, Xavier, Seton Hall, and St. John's. https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ncaabk/...xbndlbing. Don't forget basketball teams have gone the entire season trying to "stay out of trouble" just like the football teams have. It gets exhausting. Who isn't exhausted from the pandemic? Look at how many schools opted out of bowl games this year, even schools where football is huge like Nebraska and Virginia Tech? The players are tired, the coaches are tired, it's just not worth it. For some schools, an NIT title just isn't worth it this year. It might not even be they're afraid of COVID-19, they're just exhausted.

I agree with this. Exhaustion and the lack of home games for revenue probably explains why some teams turned down the NIT. In the case of elite teams like Duke it also could be that they feel the NIT is beneath them, who knows.