South Alabama's men basketball team saw their invitation to the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) abruptly rescinded on Monday. Initially, UC Riverside was invited to compete in the tournament first, but declined because of prior obligations to play in the College Basketball Invitation (CBI). With UC Riverside out, the NIT offered a spot late Sunday night for South Alabama to compete.
However, UC Riverside got out of their commitment to the CBI and will indeed compete in the NIT. That caused the NIT to rescind their invite to South Alabama, who ended up getting their hopes up for nothing and will now see their season end prematurely.
NCAA senior vice president for basketball Dan Gavitt issued an apology to South Alabama on Monday.
"After the NIT bracket was released Sunday evening, it was brought to the NIT's attention that one of the teams scheduled to participate in the tournament had also committed to a non-NCAA affiliated postseason event," Gavitt wrote. "In an effort to secure another participating team, the NIT prematurely extended an invitation to the South Alabama Jaguars, prior to learning that the original team chose to accept its invitation to the NIT. Regrettably, the NIT rescinded its invitation to South Alabama.
"We understand the emotional impact this confusion created, and we sincerely apologize to South Alabama, Head Coach Richie Riley, and all the student-athletes for the error."
That apology did not go over well with Jaguars coach Richie Riley, who called the apology "meaningless" as he spoke up for his team.
"A meaningless apology to the most meaningful group of players I’ve ever coached!" Riley wrote on X. "What they did to us last night is inexcusable! These guys in our locker room don’t deserve this and it’s sad your idea of making it right is a copy and paste apology!"
Instead of competing in the NIT, South Alabama will end their season with a 21–11 record and 13–5 record in the Sun Belt. Their final game of the season was a semifinals loss to Arkansas State in the Sun Belt conference tournament.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as South Alabama Coach Richie Riley Slams NIT For Rescinding Team's Invite .
