Smith says season should go on beyond this weekend
CHICAGO – It is no longer a rule that a team must have a .500 record to receive an at-large berth to the NIT.
Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith would like the committee to keep that in mind.
“We’re not a team to host,” Smith told The Dispatch on Friday evening, “but we’re a team that should be in the NIT.”
After losing 14 of 15 games at one point this season, Ohio
State has flipped the script in the last three weeks, including an unprecedented run in the Big Ten Tournament. After finishing the regular season at 13-18 overall and 5-15 in the league, Ohio State earned the No. 13 seed.
No team to play on the opening day of the conference tournament had reached the weekend since the league expanded to a 14-team, fiveday format in 2014-15. Ohio State became the first after beating the 12thseeded Wisconsin Badgers, No. 5 seed Iowa and then the No. 4 seed Michigan State in Friday’s quarterfinals.
“Records matter, but the reason that committee members watch games is to actually see how teams are playing,” Smith said. “Consider the last games that we’re playing, we’re playing at a high level, and I think we’ve earned an opportunity for postseason play in the NIT.”
Prior to the tournament, Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann was asked on his weekly radio show if he would consider other postseason opportunities should the Buckeyes fail to win the league tournament.
“We would address that if we were in that position,” Holtmann said Monday. “That’s a conversation for another time. Our goal every year, we understand what that is. We look at it if that opportunity would come out.”
Ohio State last participated in the NIT in the 2015-16 season, where it earned a No. 3 seed after exiting the Big Ten Tournament with a 20-13 record. The Buckeyes defeated Akron and lost to No. 2 seed Florida in the second round.