The South Alabama men’s basketball team saw its season come to an end in surreal fashion on Sunday night.
After finishing the year 21-11 with a loss in the Sun Belt Tournament semifinals, South Alabama received an invitation to the National Invitation Tournament, better known as the NIT. The Jaguars accepted the invitation, only to have it rescinded a short while later.
South Alabama’s invitation came after UC Riverside declined an NIT invite. UC Riverside had previously committed to play in the College Basketball Invitational, which is a tournament that has no NCAA affiliation. However, UC Riverside was able to get out of the CBI commitment and accept the NIT invitation instead.
UC Riverside took priority with the NIT, so South Alabama’s invitation was rescinded. Jaguars coach Richie Riley told Creg Stephenson of AL.com that the series of events was “unacceptable.”
“(Sun Belt Conference commissioner Keith Gill) said, ‘We’ve had something happen; do you guys want to be in the NIT?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, it’d be awesome,” Riley recalled. “And so we talked for a few more minutes. I said, ‘This is 100%, we’re in, right?’ And they said, ‘Yeah congratulations. I’m glad you were able to get in.’
“… I tell them, ‘I’m gonna tell my guys.’ They’re like go ahead. So I tell the team. They call back, whatever time it was, 10:45, 11 o’clock. Dan’s like, ‘No, UC Riverside is back in. I hate that we had to do this.’”
The NIT issued a statement on Monday apologizing over the situation:
