GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Have you ever sent out an invitation to someone for a party or a wedding, and hope they don’t accept?
The National Invitation Tournament did that Sunday. They were forced to, which is frequently the case when young couples are forced to invite that bad uncle or mean aunt to a wedding, by the NIT’s agreement just last year with the Southeastern Conference.
Last basketball off-season, the NIT and SEC agreed that the two highest finishing SEC men’s basketball teams not to reach the NCAA Tournament would receive automatic invites to the NIT.
Little did anyone know, though, that the SEC would smash the national record for most teams ever invited to the NCAA Tournament, which was 11 by the 16-team Big East in 2011. The SEC got 14 of its 16 in on Sunday. Yes, 14 SEC teams were invited to the Big Dance. The most the SEC ever had previously was eight last year, in 2023 and in 2018.
So, the next two were 15th place LSU (14-18, 3-15 SEC) and South Carolina (12-20, 2-16 SEC). But each school politely declined the invitation on Sunday. And the NIT likely thanked them profusely.
“Yes, LSU has declined,” LSU senior associate communications director for men’s basketball Kent Lowe said Sunday.
LSU coach Matt McMahon had no comment.
LSU and South Carolina also declined a chance to host games on Tuesday or Wednesday of this week when the 32-team NIT opens. It wraps with the NIT Final Four in April at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
The Tigers lost their sixth straight game Wednesday in the SEC Tournament in Nashville, 91-62, to Mississippi State. It was LSU’s fourth straight loss by double digits, including a season-high tying 31-point loss at No. 19 Kentucky on March 4.
LSU did not have starters Vyctorius Miller and Corey Chest in recent games because of injuries, and each would have likely been questionable for any NIT game or games.
Also, without having to prepare for an NIT game, McMahon can focus on the NCAA Transfer Portal, which opens for transfers on March 24 going into his fourth season. McMahon is expected to have a significantly higher NIL budget for new portal players than the $2 million at his disposal last year. A new LSU NIL strategy and a push for men’s basketball is expected to bestow closer to $8 million of NIL money for McMahon’s current players and new ones.
Of the 14 SEC teams in the NCAA Tournament, two are No. 1 seeds – No. 1 overall seed Auburn (15-3, SEC) and SEC Tournament champion Florida (14-4). Alabama (13-5) and Tennessee (12-6) made it as No. 2 seeds. Kentucky (10-8) is a No. 3 seed. Texas A&M (11-7) is a No. 4 seed. Ole Miss (10-8) and Missouri (10-8) are No. 6 seeds. Mississippi State (8-10) is a No. 8 seed. Oklahoma made it as a No. 9 seed despite a 6-12 SEC record that includes an 82-79 home loss to LSU on Feb. 15.
Georgia (8-10) was also a No. 9 seed. Vanderbilt (8-10) was a No. 10 seed, as was Arkansas (8-10), which lost at LSU by 78-74 on Jan 14. Texas, which also finished 6-12 in the league, was a No. 11 seed.
PREVIOUS LSU TEAM TO TURN DOWN NIT WAS GUTLESS
This is the second LSU team in nine years to decline an NIT bid. But the previous, “not interested,” was cowardly as opposed to this one being realistic.
The 2015-16 Tigers of coach Johnny Jones and 2016 NBA first overall pick Ben Simmons did not go after a 19-14 season, which included an 11-7 finish in the SEC for third. That team reached the SEC Tournament semifinals in Nashville with an 84-75 win over Tennessee, but then lost to Texas A&M, 71-38.
Simmons, the consensus No. 1 recruit in the nation whose entry to LSU was accompanied by an LSU advertisement that beamed “No. 25 Is Coming,” left by scoring just 10 points in that game on 4-of-11 shooting with no 3-point attempts as usual. He also missed 5 of 7 from the free throw line. His LSU team became the first since before the 3-point line came to the SEC in the 1986-87 season to score less than 40 points in an SEC Tournament. LSU trailed that game by 35-13 at the half. The 33-point loss was a larger deficit than in any loss by a much less talented LSU team this season.
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