March 23, 2008

By Jim Sumner
theACC.com

You've probably never heard of Ned Irish. He wasn't a player, a coach, or even a conference president. But in his own way, Ned Irish was as responsible for the growth of college basketball as any player, coach, or administrator you can name.

Before Ned Irish, college basketball was a regional sport, its results relegated to the back pages of the sports sections. It was impossible to compare top teams from different regions, because they so rarely played each other. Irish was a sports writer for the New York World-Telegram and dabbled in promotion. He convinced Madison Square Garden to host a college twin-bill on December 29, 1934, one game pitting New York University and Notre Dame, the other Westminster and St. John's.

It was a huge success. Suddenly, New York City sports fans couldn't get enough of college basketball doubleheaders featuring teams from across the nation. The most famous of these games took place on December 30, 1936, when Stanford's Hank Luisetti unveiled his revolutionary one-handed push shot and helped Stanford beat powerhouse Long Island University 45-31, ending the local team's 43-game winning streak.

Irish left the newspaper business and became basketball director for Madison Square Garden, in which capacity he convinced the Metropolitan Basketball Writers of New York to sponsor a postseason invitational basketball tournament. Six teams participated in the 1938 National Invitation Tournament, which was won by Temple. The following year the National Association of Basketball Coaches prevailed upon the NCAA to start its own postseason tournament.

The NCAA and NIT were roughly equal in quality and stature for at least a decade. Two things happened in the early 1950s that enabled the NCAA Tournament to gain permanent supremacy. In 1951 news broke about a college basketball point-shaving scandal. Although heartland schools like Kentucky and Bradley eventually were ensnared in the scandal, the greatest impact was on New York City, where the point-shaving infrastructure was headquartered. Players from City College of New York, Long Island University, and Manhattan were all implicated and their programs were de-emphasized.

Almost overnight, New York City college basketball became synonymous with corruption and crime. Making matters worse for the NIT, the NCAA Tournament expanded to 16 teams in 1951, giving automatic bids for the first time and diluting the pool of talent available for the NIT.

The Atlantic Coast Conference was founded in May 1953. The league determined that its champion would be decided in the conference tournament and that team would receive the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. No consideration was given to the NIT. Charlie Bryant, a long-time assistant at Wake Forest and NC State, recalls "that the NIT was perceived as being a second-class operation with shady management during that era."

Another point-shaving scandal erupted in the early 1960s, this time including ACC teams, but the money trail still led back to the Big Apple.

Still, the NIT held on to some measure of popularity, especially with schools from the Northeast and independents that were unable to garner automatic conference bids to the NCAA Tournament. NIT champions during this period included powers like Louisville, Providence, Dayton, and St. John's.

Coaches always want more games, of course, and the subject of the ACC and the NIT wouldn't go away. Every year the coaches petitioned the league for permission to play in the NIT and every year they were rebuffed. Much of the opposition came from faculty athletics representatives, who opposed giving up class time for a trip to "shady" New York.

One of the more persistent coaches was Duke's Vic Bubas, who had played in the NIT in 1948, while at NC State. Bubas says, "I never thought that playing in the NIT diminished Duke. I thought that with only the conference champion being able to go to the NCAA Tournament, it was a good idea for teams to be able to go to the NIT, but only if they wanted to. I thought that the best ACC teams should have that option."

In December 1966, the league's Basketball Committee, chaired by Duke Athletic Director and former basketball coach Eddie Cameron, recommended that the ban be lifted and the league went along. For that one season, only the tournament runner-up was allowed to accept an invitation.

As fate would have it, Bubas had dibs. Top-seed North Carolina defeated second-seed Duke 82-73 in the 1967 ACC Tournament finals and Duke went to the NIT. Following the ACC Tournament, Bubas said, "We're going to a tournament but the wrong one as far as what we wanted to do." Still, Bubas maintained that "I know our entry into the NIT this year does not come at a very good time but I feel strongly that we should get into this event this year and maybe we will have to pay for doing it."

Duke did have a brutal assignment. The NIT began before the conclusion of the ACC Tournament on Saturday, March 11. The NIT agreed to give the ACC representative a bye into the second round but Duke had to travel to New York and play on Monday, March 13, its fourth game in five days.

The Blue Devils opened against Walt Frazier and Southern Illinois. Duke star Bob Verga ended his college career with 24 points but the exhausted Duke team faded down the stretch, losing 72-63. Southern Illinois went on to capture the title.

The ACC wasn't the only conference to come on board around this time. The Big Eight and the Southern Conference also revoked their bans on NIT participation. The NIT wasn't back to parity with the NCAA but with NCAA Tournament participation limited to one team per conference, the NIT was able to attract some quality teams, many of them from the ACC.

The ACC did end its one-team limit but only Duke in 1968 and South Carolina in 1969 were invited. South Carolina entered the 1970 ACC Tournament ranked third nationally but was upset in the title game by NC State. Coached by New Yorker Frank McGuire and with a roster full of New Yorkers, South Carolina would have entered the 1970 NIT as clear favorites. However, the school was hosting NCAA Tournament regional games and NCAA rules prohibited them from playing in the NIT.

North Carolina and Duke were invited to the 1970 NIT but both lost their openers. At this point, the ACC had compiled a mediocre 2-5 record in the NIT.

Things started improving in 1971, when Duke and North Carolina again received bids. Both, of course, entered the NIT off losses in the ACC Tournament. UNC's was particularly galling, as the top-seeded Tar Heels fell victim to a South Carolina buzzer-beater.

Forward Dennis Wuycik, a native of Pennsylvania, describes his feelings about playing in the NIT. "The NIT traditionally fielded big-name teams and had a TV broadcast contract, as did the NCAA Tourney. So I personally knew the NIT was a big deal growing up, especially since it was held at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Our loss to South Carolina in the ACC Tournament hurt, for sure. Having a grand opportunity to continue to play was very meaningful, most memorable and not hard to get fired up for."

Wuycik injured a knee in UNC's opener, a 90-49 rout over Julius Erving and Massachusetts, but his teammates took up the slack, beating Ernie DeGregorio and Providence to advance to the third round. There the Tar Heels met Duke, fresh off victories over Dayton and Tennessee. North Carolina edged its arch-rival 73-67, still the only time North Carolina and Duke have met in the postseason outside of the league tournament.

North Carolina followed with an 84-66 win over future conference foe Georgia Tech to give the ACC its first NIT title. Forward Bill Chamberlain scored 87 points in UNC's four victories and was named tournament MVP.

The ACC made it two-in-a-row in 1972. Lefty Driesell's Maryland Terrapins had finished second in the ACC regular season and Tournament, both times behind UNC. The league's clear number two team, Maryland defeated St. Joseph's, Syracuse, Jacksonville, and Niagara to win the title. Only the 71-65 win over Syracuse was especially close. Sophomore forward Tom McMillen was named MVP. Virginia also was invited but lost its first game.

North Carolina advanced to the third round in 1973 before losing to Notre Dame. Future ACC member Virginia Tech edged Notre Dame 92-91 in overtime for the title, while UNC won the consolation game for third place. North Carolina lost in the first round in 1974 and Clemson did the same the following year.

But the ACC lost two great chances in the middle 1970s. The 1974 ACC Tournament final between NC State and Maryland is widely regarded as the best ACC game ever. After Maryland's gut-wrenching overtime loss to the Wolfpack, the Terrapins were invited to the NIT.

Driesell tells what happened next. "We had won that tournament in 1972. It was a great tournament, top teams and all the games in Madison Square Garden. I wanted to go back again. But after losing to State, we had such a letdown. I told the players in the locker room, we would do what they wanted. The team voted and said no. If we had voted the next day, we probably would have said yes. But we were told we had to decide then and there and we were in no condition to make that decision."

Thus, the fourth-ranked Terps ended their season with the loss to State. This memorable game had other ramifications. After watching Maryland stay home, the NCAA voted to expand to 32 teams for 1975, and allowed a second team from any conference to make the field.

This NCAA expansion began a trend that gradually would erode the NIT's strength. But it wasn't immediate. When defending NCAA champions David Thompson and NC State finished second in the 1975 ACC regular season and tournament to two different teams, they faced the same situation Maryland had faced a year earlier - a disappointed locker room, an invitation on the table, and no time to think.

State turned down the NIT. The next morning Thompson and fellow senior Monte Towe went to State coach Norm Sloan to tell him the team had changed its mind. Sloan informed his captains that it was too late; the field had been completed.

The NCAA's two-team-per-conference limit lasted through 1979, giving the NIT a few more years to grab top teams from power conferences. In 1977 the NIT made a bold move, moving early-round games to campus sites, reserving Madison Square Garden for the final four teams. The tournament expanded to 24 teams in 1979.

NC State advanced all the way to the 1978 NIT finals, before losing to Texas, 101-93. The league sent three teams to the NIT in 1979 for the first time. But Clemson, Maryland, and Virginia all lost their second games on the same Monday, the day after North Carolina and Duke had lost their NCAA openers. The disaster has been called Black Sunday and Blue Monday since then.

The NCAA Tournament kept expanding, to 40 teams in 1979, 48 in 1982, and 64 in 1985. In 1980, the NCAA dropped any limit on the number of teams a conference could send. At this point the NIT lost access to the nation's top teams.

But despite constant predictions of imminent demise, the NIT has survived, even thrived. The NCAA took over management of the tournament in 2005, likely ensuring its survival for the foreseeable future.

The ACC certainly finds the NIT attractive, sending teams to the NIT on an annual basis, with the exception of 1989, 1991, and 1996. Six ACC teams went in 2006.

Not surprisingly, the ACC has had its share of victories. A young Virginia team captured the 1980 NIT and used it as a springboard to the school's first Final Four the following season. The Cavaliers duplicated the NIT feat in 1992 under Coach Jeff Jones, the point guard on the 1980 team. Jones is the only person to both play on and coach an NIT champion.

The ACC's most recent title came in 2000, when Wake Forest defeated Notre Dame, although Clemson lost a heartbreaker to West Virginia in last season's championship match.

Of course, these ACC teams were not top 10 teams like 1971 North Carolina or 1972 Maryland. Few teams from power conferences like the ACC begin a season aspiring to the NIT. But the chance to play at Madison Square Garden on national television still is a powerful incentive and more often than not the Selection Sunday disappointment turns quickly to a desire to finish the season on a roll.

Maybe this isn't what Ned Irish had in mind 70 years ago but the NIT still gives fans a chance to cheer on their favorites and still gives teams and players a chance to end their season with a championship. Still, a grand opportunity.

Jim Sumner's articles on southern sports history have appeared in the ACC Handbook, the ACC Area Sports Journal, Blue Devil Weekly, Inside Carolina, the Wolfpacker, Baseball America, Basketball America, and other publications. His latest book, Tales From the Duke Blue Devils Hardwood, was published in 2005. In his bimonthly column "Looking Back... by Jim Sumner", he will examine the rich history of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

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