Commence rant.

What’s there left to say. This wasn’t exactly the season many of us expected especially many of those students who turned Madison Square Garden into Beaver Stadium East last year. Talor Battle was returning and so were our hopes for a respectable basketball program. But it was not meant to be. Chances for this fan base to bounce to Zombie Nation and roar with Rock and Roll have been scarce. And as this team continued to add to the losses column, fan displeasure multiplied.

Don’t get me wrong, I did not expect this team to exceed the accomplishments by last year’s miracle squad especially with the losses in senior ship this year. But nobody could have predicted the face plant of a season we ended up with. And there is simply no excuse for a (until recently) winless conference record. A lot of our problems lie in personnel and especially coaching. Ed DeChellis’ inability to maintain and change momentum is well documented. So is his mismanagement of time outs.

But as fans we were simply naive. Based on the track records of NIT champions in the last decade, there is simply no evidence that would lead Lion fans to expect improvement based solely on our participation and success in the NIT last year.

Of the last 10 NIT champions spanning the past decade, only 5 have gone on to reach the Big Dance the following season. 50% success rate. Not exactly a resounding endorsement for the champion of the NIT. Of those 5 that did improve on their post season fates from the previous year, 3 suffered an early 1st round exit, 1 made it to the 2nd round, and West Virginia made a run to the 2008 Sweet Sixteen. Even by punching a ticket to the NCAA tournament their following season, recent NIT champs haven’t exactly been making an impact in the Big Dance.

Then we have 4 squads that actually regressed following an NIT championship, including ours this season. None more so than the 2004 St. John’s team that went from a 17-13 NIT championship season in 2003 to a 6-21 record the following year. Fortunately Penn State have not fallen that hard, that fast. But at 11-17 (3-13), we come pretty close.

In fact, since the NIT’s inaugural tournament in 1938, just 14 NIT Final Four finalists have gone on to make a Final Four run in the NCAA tournament the following year. The last being Syracuse (NIT 4th place finish in 2002, NCAA champions in 2003). But prior to the Orange, the last NIT participant to make a Final Four impact was in 1985 when Louisville also parlayed a 4th place NIT finish to a NCAA championship the following year. That’s 1 NCAA Final Four team to come out of 96 NIT Final Four finalists in 24 years. 1% success rate.

The history simply wasn’t there. No concrete proof of any substantial improvement simply through success in the NIT. Just because we beat Notre Dame, Florida and Baylor on our way to a nifty NIT trophy last year did not entitle us to some boost in wins or talent this season.

Unfortunately Ed DeChellis, the amazing motivational speaker well all know he is, clearly was unable to convey such a warning to the team. It was a trap our players and its fans fell into and was unable to recover from until it was too late. The NIT was never and is still not a spring board to bigger and better things, it is simply just another tournament rewarding teams with decent records squeezed out by the NCAA tournament in their effort to incorporate more of the little guys. An end game.

If Ed DeChellis’ greatest accomplishments is leading this program to numerous NIT appearances, that is disheartening. Recent history has made it evident that the NIT is not a guarantee or basis for any future improvement, and if the ultimate goal of the NCAA is one we will not reach with DeChellis, isn’t it time to look elsewhere?

End of rant.

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