\jeff{krimmel}

South Carolina Wins the NIT

South Carolina won the NIT men’s college basketball tournament tonight. No, the NIT is not the tournament with the “Final Four”; that’s the NCAA tournament. The NIT, at least in modern times, is the second tier tournament for the teams that were not invited to play in the NCAA tournament.

And it’s a pretty unique sporting event. No matter who wins, the champion is always asked at the end of the tournament what that victory means to them. Usually they comment on how much it means to win their final game or to finish their season on a positive note. But no reasonable person can deny that this is the lesser of the two tournaments. Most of the time, maybe even an overwhelming majority of the time, the NIT champion would rather play and lose in the NCAA tournament than win the NIT.

Regardless, congratulations go out to the South Carolina Gamecocks for their NIT victory.