NIT: End of an era

I went to the NIT final last night with my son and watched North Carolina be trounced by the Flyers of Dayton University. Little did we know that this was most likely the last NIT final that would ever be played. If you are not up to the world of basketball, the NCAA is considering expanding their end of season tourney to 96 teams. This effectively will envelope the 32 teams that comprise the NIT tourney.

Years ago the NIT was the premier end of season tourney. But over the years the NCAA championship has put a lock on the stronger teams as the champion of each conference gets an automatic berth to the tournement.

Of the 19,000 plus seats in Madison Square Garden approximately 6000 seats were occupied. To the majority of fans wearing Carolina blue or Dayton red tees they didn't need to fill the remaining 13,000 seats. This was there moment and they exuded enough cheer to fill the arena with noise.

Though I am not a fervent fan of either school (however, I do lean towards UNC), I did take vicarious pleasure in watching the fans cheer on their schools. As a graduate of Brooklyn College, I never had the opportunity to experience that kind of fervor for my alma mater's teams. The sound that two hundred fans make does not quite compare to the 6000 at last nights game. Can you imagine the sound of 33,000 fans at Syracuse's Carrier stadium?

Believe it or not, Brooklyn College did try to make a foray into NCAA I basketball in the 70's as they had Kingsborough Basketball great Ed Middleton who was the leading community college scorer in the nation. This didn't last long as it is extremely expensive to play ball at this level and Brooklyn College could never sell enough seats to make it worthwhile for a top college team to play them. They managed to get a game with Syracuse, but only under the condition that the game be played at Carrier.

When I was young I followed All Americans Barry Kramer of NYU and Luther Green at LIU. Yes, younger peoples, these were NCAA 1 schools at one time and played on the level of Uconn, Duke, Georgetown, Dayton and North Carolina. The NIT was the big tourney and if you didn't get invited to this tournament you played in the less prestigious NCAA tournement.

NIT had a great run but as with phones with rotary dials, black and white TVs and transistor radios everything eventually comess to an end. Heres to next years NCAA tournement and here's my advice to Tyler Zeller the 7 foot center at UNC, pack on twenty pounds of muscle for next season and hold your ground when your opponent drives on you.