INDIANAPOLIS – The plan was this. Have the NIT semifinals and finals and Division II and III national championship games all join the party on Final Four weekend. Police escorts, gifts in the room, special treatment at the hotels, buzz on the streets, suites at the Final Four, their names on display, right there next to the Connecticut Huskies and Michigan Wolverines. The works.
Opinions are in. As ideas go, it all went over like a Taylor Swift concert.
“Brilliant,” said the coach whose team won the NIT, Auburn’s Steven Pearl.
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“Got to do a lot of cool stuff, really once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity type stuff,” said the guard who was named Most Outstanding Player of the DII title game, Gannon’s Pace Prosser.
“Definitely we’ll never forget this weekend,” said one of the players of the DIII team that lost the championship game at the buzzer, John Coppolino IV of Emory.
The net-cuttings came in a flurry on Sunday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, just a few blocks away from where the Michigan and Connecticut teams were having their final media sessions at Lucas Oil Stadium on the eve of the national championship game.
First, Gannon’s full-court, full-time pressure took its toll on Lander 84-61 in Division II. First national championship in any sport for Gannon, but it was more than that.
It was Prosper talking with wonder about what was to come Monday night. “We’re about to watch the national championship game . . . in a suite . . . with a bunch of national champs.”
And Lander's Jake Tringone deciding that, disappointing ending or not, “this is an insane memory. You’re going to look back at this in 20 or 30 years.”
Next, Mary Washington, the DIII school in Virginia named after George Washington’s mother, beat Emory 75-73 when Colin Mitchell – an outside shooting specialist with five 2-pointers to his name all season -- rebounded in Kye Robinson’s airball at the buzzer. “The best missed shot of my life,” Robinson.
But it was more than that.
It was Mary Washington coach Marcus Kahn discussing what this had been like for a DIII program and his feeling at seeing “the smiles on our guys’ faces the last three or four days. The way they went into the rooms and saw the gifts and came running back out into the hallway excited. For me the coolest part was getting the race helmet.”
As his guard Robinson said after 27 points, “It’s just an amazing feeling to know that D1, D2, D3’s all under one roof. Not one roof necessarily, but we’re all under one roof technically. Just the energy, the vibes. Nobody does this better than Indianapolis.”
It was coach Jason Zimmer, broken-hearted after his Emory team rallied from 10 down in the final 2:21 only to lose at the buzzer, describing a rare weekend.
“When we landed, we’re pulling off the runway and I say, `hey act like you’ve been here before.’ Then I turn around and think, we’ve never been here before.
I’ve been coming to Final Fours for a long time but to walk down the street and see Emory Eagle logos on Gainbridge and Lucas Oil, are you kidding me? What’s going on here? You can’t put it into words.
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“You’ve got Arizona and Illinois and Michigan. We go down the street and people think the guy in front of the bus is Dan Hurley. They look and it’s just another bald guy.”
Finally, Auburn blew a 21-point lead but regrouped to defeat Tulsa 92-86 and win the NIT.
But it was more than that. It was Pearl getting a long hug afterward from Bruce Pearl, the father he replaced at Auburn. “This year was obviously difficult and we were able to end on a high note, so he was very pleased and proud. It all worked out,” Steven said later. And it was the Tigers getting a chance to put some first-aid on their wounds from missing the NCAA Tournament by earning their own confetti shower, just down the street from where either Michigan or UConn will get the same thing Monday night. Five NIT wins to end the season turned out to be a fine mood-lifter.
Haad speed is DIFFERENT😤
— Auburn Basketball (@AuburnMBB)
“Truthfully, we didn't really want to play. We could have packed it up,” NIT Most Outstanding Player Kevin Overton said of the post-Selection Sunday blues.
“But we came together. We made a decision. Once we started playing it became, okay, it's basketball at the end of the day and we're still competitors. Let's go win the game. Obviously we didn't want to be where we were but we are the ones that got in that situation, so let's just go make the best of it.”
Being a part of the scene in Indianapolis helped.
“I would love this to be where the Final Four is every year because our guys really felt like they were part of it,” Pearl said. “But it also motivates them for next year to want to get back to the tournament, so they have the opportunity to potentially get to a Final Four. I think it was brilliant playing in the same city.”
The coach of the team who lost in overtime felt the same way.
“Very, very first class,” Tulsa's Eric Konkol said. “Any time you want to invite us, we'll be there.”
