Category: Basketball

Today at 6 p.m. ET, the field for the 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament will be announced, officially bringing the joy of March Madness to 68 schools.

At 9:30 p.m., the National Invitation Tournament will reveal its bracket – one chock full of teams bitterly disappointed that they failed to make the Big Dance.

There is no confusion about the hierarchy of postseason tourneys in modern college hoops: if you aren’t in the competition that ultimately crowns a national champion, every matchup is a consolation game.

Of course, there was a time when the NIT was the premiere event in amateur basketball, playing all its games at Madison Square Garden in New York with the tourney winner considered America’s top collegiate team for the season. It began in 1938, predating the NCAA tourney by a year.

But the competition sponsored by the sport’s governing body became the alpha by the 1960s, and by 1969 the NCAA Tournament was clearly the main event of collegiate basketball, featuring 25 participants.

The NIT, on the other hand, had just 16 schools in its field.

Yet, while the senior tournament was no longer the star attraction, it still carried a measure of prestige. And in 1970, the Marquette Warriors actually turned down an NCAA bid in favor of an NIT berth.

Marquette (23-3) was ranked No. 8 in the Associated Press poll when the 1969-70 regular season ended, and on February 24, 1970, the school was one of 10 programs to receive at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament.

The others were Jacksonville, Notre Dame, St. Bonaventure, New Mexico State, Houston, Utah State, Villanova, Niagara and Long Beach State. Fifteen conference champions earned automatic bids.

However, the NCAA Selection Committee placed Marquette in the Midwest Regional, which was being played in Fort Worth, Texas. Warrior coach Al McGuire declined the invite because he thought his team deserved to play closer to home in the Mideast Regional, contested in Dayton, Ohio. They were the third highest-ranked independent school named to the field.

“I am very disappointed,” McGuire told AP. “Our heart was set on going to the NCAA.”

McGuire said he talked to NCAA officials and told them Marquette deserved the Mideast Region berth regardless of whether teams were picked based on strength of schedule, records or rankings.

“We belong in Dayton, Ohio,” McGuire said. “That’s all there is to it. I can’t see their thinking.”

Tom Scott, Davidson athletic director and chairman of the NCAA Selection Committee, said he was sorry Marquette decided to opt out.

“Our selection committee ranks the teams in each region and Marquette was third in the Mideast, behind both Notre Dame and Jacksonville,” Scott explained in a United Press International story. “We have only two at-large berths in the Mideast and so the third team is the ‘swing’ team – the team we can, according to the (rule book), move to another regional.

“Our purpose is to select the 10 independent teams we consider the best in the country and we certainly feel Marquette is one of those teams.”

Based on Scott’s logic the decision made perfect sense, but McGuire wasn’t having it. His team had been in the Mideast Regional the previous two seasons, and his 1969-70 squad had a better record than either of those teams.

“I’m disgusted,” he said. “We take basketball seriously here. Maybe it was something between me and the committee … I don’t know. They speak out of both sides of their mouth. First, they speak about schedules, then records. We can’t do any better than we did. What do we have to do – 23-0?”

The Warriors’ leading scorer – junior guard Dean Meminger – backed his coach.

“You must stand up against the establishment,” Meminger said in a February 25 UPI article. “You can’t let people walk over you. What the committee did was a total contradiction.

“My heart was set on going to the NCAA because I wanted to play against the best.”

While Dayton was quickly named as Marquette’s replacement in the NCAA Tourney, the Warriors just as quickly accepted an NIT bid.

McGuire’s team opened with an 83-63 victory over Utah.

“There is a certain electricity about the NIT,” McGuire told Newsday’s George Usher. “It turns New York into a small town – a Madison, Wisconsin – but a lot of so-called dreams are put in the background. I’m just tickled pink the NIT is alive and took us in.”

Marquette thumped LSU (and “Pistol Pete” Maravich), 101-79, in the semi-finals, limiting Maravich to 20 points – 27 points below his average.

And the Warriors claimed the NIT Championship with a 65-53 win over St. John’s on March 21, their twelfth consecutive victory.

“I felt we could win the NCAA, but I’m happy to win any championship,” McGuire said. “I’ve never won one anywhere.”

The same night of the NIT finals, the UCLA Bruins claimed their fourth consecutive national championship with an 80-69 victory over Jacksonville. The Dolphins, by the way, won the Mideast Regional.

The 1969-70 season was the last time an NCAA Tournament invitee had the option of trading down to the NIT. Starting with the 1970-71 campaign, any school receiving an NCAA bid was required to accept it.

Incidentally, Marquette was selected as an at-large team in the 1977 NCAA Tournament and – you guessed it – sent to the Midwest Regional.

In McGuire’s last game before retiring, the Warriors defeated North Carolina, 67-59, to claim his only national championship and – to date – the school’s lone NCAA men’s basketball crown.

You already know that I’m a gimmick guy, meaning I love a good sports rule innovation – especially one that makes fans of the status quo uncomfortable.

And this is the time of the year when I always go to the NBA G League website to find out what tweaks they have for the upcoming season.

In 2024-25 the only changes in the developmental circuit involve end of period “heaves” and expanded coach’s challenge.

If a player chunks one from the cheap seats at the end of the quarter and misses, it’ll be charged to the team and won’t go against his shooting percentage. It has to come within the final three seconds of the first three periods, and must be 36 feet from the basket or beyond.

And as for the coach’s challenge, the only called infractions that won’t be subject to review will be technical fouls, unsportsmanlike acts and flagrant fouls. 

I don’t have strong feelings about those changes one way or another – my main concern was making sure the free throw rule was still in place. The one implemented by the G League starting with the 2019-20 campaign is the best in the roundball business, in my opinion.

A single free throw is worth one, two or three points when a player goes to the line following any foul that would result in one, two or three free throws under standard NBA rules (it doesn’t apply during the last two minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime).

Not only does this speed up the game, but I think it’s a fair way of making the punishment fit the crime, so to speak. If a guy was fouled while shooting a three, let his lone charity toss replicate that number of points.

Out of curiosity, I decided to look at some of the other modifications free throws have undergone through the years.

One of my favorites (and a controversial one) is an oldie but a goodie, courtesy of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

From 1939 to 1952, the NCAA utilized a rule that allowed a team to decline free throws and, instead, retain possession of the ball and inbound it from halfcourt. And in the case of a team being awarded a two-shot foul, it could opt to shoot the first free throw and then decline the second in favor of possession.

The rule was proposed in March, 1939, by Marquette coach W.S. Chandler but ultimately fell out of favor and nixed by NCAA coaches during their March, 1952, meeting.

I’ve always been intrigued by this alternative. Instead of the “Hack-a-Shaq” approach that puts a poor free throw shooter on the line, the opposing defense will simply have to force a turnover if the fouled team retains possession. Then again, it didn’t stop them from fouling during its 14-year run (especially since the inbound play came from halfcourt), so this rule was hardly perfect.

Starting with the 1954-55 season, the NBA had a “three to make two” free throw rule. This was applied during shooting fouls, flagrant fouls and backcourt fouls when a club was over the team limit. In the 1960s there was also a “two to make one rule” that went onto effect after a player was fouled followed a made field goal.

I liked those fine, although both were canned before the 1981-82 season. The stated reason was they were extending the length of the games (which they did).

So, what would my free throw “fix” be if I ran a league?

It’s far too drastic to ever be considered, but I’d just eliminate free throws altogether.

If a player is fouled while shooting, he or she is awarded the points (two or three) they would’ve scored on a made basket. And in an “and one” situation, they automatically get the one.

As for fouls during a bonus situation, instead of a one-and-one, the offense is credited with one point and retains possession.

Yeah, I know … that’s too far outside the box and would result in freakish scoring stats. But it’s still what I’d do because as I wrote at the outset, I’m a gimmick guy.

Fortunately for basketball fans everywhere, I’ll never run a league, so there’s absolutely nothing to worry about.

That being the case, I’ll just keep hoping that one day the G League free throw rule becomes universal.

Sports fans always remember the great moments … championships, last-gasp victories, record-breaking performances.

But guess what?

We also remember the bitter disappointments.

On June 17, 1976, it was announced that the National Basketball Association would absorb four members of my beloved American Basketball Association – the Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, New York Nets and San Antonio Spurs.

As a Nets fan, I was glad my favorite team lived on – and that I could watch them on TV – but I was crushed at the demise of the ABA. The league that featured red, white and blue basketballs and free-wheeling play turned me from a casual basketball fan to a basketball fan for life, and now it was gone.

But what might have been even worse was the news that broke on this day 48 years ago: Julius Erving had been traded to the Philadelphia 76ers.

I found out immediately as I opened the local paper and turned to the sports pages:

A $6.5 million deal which would bring pro basketball superstar Julius Erving to the Philadelphia 76ers from the New York Nets awaited only the final approval of Nets owner Roy Bee, the Associated Press learned. The deal, it was learned from pro basketball sources, could be completed later at a private meeting in New York. It reportedly calls for the Nets to get $3 million for Erving, who would then sign a multi-year contract with the 76ers for a reported $3.5 million.

I didn’t cry – I was a big, brave boy in 1976 – but I cussed.

Just as the Nets were my favorite team, Dr. J was my favorite player. In fact, he was the reason I became a Nets fan.

After the UMass grad starred for the Virginia Squires for three seasons, he was signed by New York in 1973. I was familiar with the ABA during his time in Norfolk/Hampton/Richmond/Roanoke (CBS televised select games in the early 1970s), but it wasn’t until Erving took his dunking act to the Big Apple that I became committed to the league that dared challenge the NBA.

Without a national TV contract most of my fan worship was confined to newspaper stories, but I anxiously awaited word of his exploits.

And once I got over the disappointment of the NBA-ABA merger, I was excited that the Nets could show the old circuit how it was done.

They were coming off an ABA title, one that saw them best the Denver Nuggets in six games. It was their second title in three seasons, and I had no doubt they could jump right into an NBA schedule and win big.

I mean, with Kevin Loughery coaching ‘em up, the Doctor dissecting the opposition and Super John Williamson scoring at will, there was little doubt they’d teach the old guard some new tricks.

Instead, everything was blown up with the loss of Dr. J, and that left me in a bit of a quandary.

See, while the Nets were my overall faves, the Los Angeles Lakers were the NBA team I supported.

Would I abandon both and throw my support behind Dr. J and the 76ers – a franchise I’d never given a second thought?

Kinda, and no.

I couldn’t bail on the Doc, but I had invested so much energy cheering for the Nets (and to a lesser degree, the Lakers) they felt like “my” teams, regardless of who put on the uniform. (Tiny Archibald and Jan van Breda Kolff were on the 76-77 New York roster, while L.A. was led by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). So – in what I think was a quite mature decision for a 15-year-old – I decided that I would always hope Erving played well. But … when he played against the Nets or Lakers, I’d hope he didn’t play that well.

Historically, of course, Dr. J is best known for his time in Philly. He spent just five years in the ABA (three with New York) and played his last 11 seasons with the 76ers.

The end result is 30,026 points (a 24.2 ppg average across the ABA and NBA), a place in the Basketball Hall of Fame and College Basketball Hall of Fame, the ABA All-Time MVP, NBA 35^th, 50^th and 75^th Anniversary Teams, an NBA title and pair of ABA crowns.

Decades later, I remain a fan of the Nets and Lakers – and Julius Erving remains my all-time favorite player.

However, I’ve still never cheered for the 76ers.