For Power 6 conference teams, an NIT invitation is a wild card. Some teams play hard and try to win. Others (eg. Indiana 2017) treat an invite with the mindset that Hinkle describes. My hope is that the Dawgs would take an NIT bid as an opportunity to avenge a disappointing season. After four straight NCAAT appearances and a 5-4 record there, my fear is that they will feel it is a throw-away consolation prize and play without energy.
I agree with what you are saying. My point wasn't about winning the NIT, or even winning another game. It was that being in any post season tournament allows more days of organized practices and more time to develop and grow.
Obviously making the NIT is not the ultimate goal but to me I’d much rather see Butler make the NIT than nothing. You still have to earn your way into the NIT unlike the CBI. Plus, it could be another opportunity to get to Hinkle for more game(s) which is always a good thing to me. Agree with Willis that the team likely needs to go 5-4 the rest of the way to get to 8-10 to secure a bid. Sent from my iPhone using Butler Hoops
Friday: Brown 60 Dartmouth 58 Saturday: Duquesne 64 Dayton 68 Providence 55 DePaul 67 Youngstown St. 72 Detroit 70 St. John's 61 Duke 91 Miami OH 59 Eastern Michigan 48 Kentucky 65 Florida 54 Brown 47 Harvard 68 UC Irvine 82 Long Beach St. 80 Indiana 79 Michigan St. 75 OT Mississippi St. 81 Mississippi 75 Toledo 69 Northern Illinois 55 Saint Louis 54 Rhode Island 65 Middle Tennessee 79 UAB 78 Sunday: Xavier 54 Creighton 76 Georgetown 65 Villanova 77
They are not very good anymore... Cartee Gordon already transferred so you can see it's a **** show over there. That'll turn out to be maybe our worst loss Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Butler Hoops mobile app
Florida 62 Auburn 76 Miami OH 67 Kent St. 70 St. John's 70 Marquette 69 Ball St. 72 Northern Illinois 71 Dayton 60 Saint Louis 73
Texas A&M 71 Mississippi 75 Georgetown 76 Providence 67 Cal St. Fullerton 53 UC Irvine 60 Creighton 59 Villanova 66 OT
Thursday: Iowa 77 Indiana 72 Charlotte 53 Middle Tennessee 71 Detroit 65 Northern Kentucky 97 UNC Asheville 44 Presbyterian 67 Friday: Penn 92 Brown 82 Saint Louis 61 Saint Joseph's 91 Saturday: Princeton 70 Brown 78 Northern Illinois 49 Eastern Michigan 57 Mississippi 80 Georgia 64 Villanova 65 Marquette 66 Ohio 59 Miami OH 79 Old Dominion 55 Middle Tennessee 50 Gardner Webb 101 Presbyterian 103 OT Dayton 77 Rhode Island 48 Creighton 58 Seton Hall 63 Providence 70 St. John's 56 Florida 61 Tennessee 73 Hawaii 56 UC Irvine 67 Detroit 60 Wright St. 83 DePaul 74 Xavier 62 Sunday: Ohio St. 55 Indiana 52
Mississippi 60 Auburn 55 Vanderbilt 57 Florida 66 Saint Louis 73 George Washington 58 Georgetown 75 Seton Hall 90 Providence 67 Villanova 85 Presbyterian 85 Winthrop 93 Creighton 61 Xavier 64 OT
I think he's safe for now due to recruiting success. Their season was in big trouble when Darius Garland went down for the year. He was a huge piece.