03-12-2021, 11:54 AM
I just stumbled across a pre-conference tournament interview where Jerod Haase said that his team would welcome an NIT bid if an NCAA bid were not forthcoming (spoiler alert: an NCAA bid is not forthcoming).
Immediately following the Cal debacle, I felt strongly that it was time to shut down the season and turn down an NIT bid. There's really no point to try to recover whatever cohesion the team had. In fact, I'm not sure if the players feel the same as Coach Haase about the NIT. On the other hand, there's more reward than risk. If Stanford can put behind whatever is ailing it and make a run, that would at least partially dilute the poison of the last month. If Stanford gets bounced in the first round, we're no worse off.
I suppose there's some question re: whether or not Stanford would even receive an NIT bid. But teams are starting to pull out of conference tournaments and are/might not be eligible for post-season play (e.g. Duke, Virginia) so spots are becoming available to the next in line.
Thoughts?
Immediately following the Cal debacle, I felt strongly that it was time to shut down the season and turn down an NIT bid. There's really no point to try to recover whatever cohesion the team had. In fact, I'm not sure if the players feel the same as Coach Haase about the NIT. On the other hand, there's more reward than risk. If Stanford can put behind whatever is ailing it and make a run, that would at least partially dilute the poison of the last month. If Stanford gets bounced in the first round, we're no worse off.
I suppose there's some question re: whether or not Stanford would even receive an NIT bid. But teams are starting to pull out of conference tournaments and are/might not be eligible for post-season play (e.g. Duke, Virginia) so spots are becoming available to the next in line.
Thoughts?
If there's one thing people have learned in Berkeley, it's that you can't put "Cal football" and "Rose Bowl" in the same sentence. The words just don't fit. You'd be better off linking "covered wagons" with "Mars travel." (Bruce Jenkins, Cal '70, SF Chronicle, Nov. 11, 2017)