Oklahoma State NIT Run Not Great for the Team, but Good for the Program

Last night as Oklahoma State was falling to Bradley Beal Taveion Hollingsworth and the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, I began to envision a world in which the National Invitational Tournament was superior to the NCAAs. You know, the way things used to be. Back in a pre-1951 world, before “a combination of bribe dollars and increased NCAA districts” helped pushed the NCAAs out ahead of the NIT as the crown jewel.

This is great, I thought. Brooklyn’s Mike Boynton is going to lead Oklahoma State to the Promised Land by way of Madison Square Garden. I eventually snapped back into the reality that the fourth seed in a tournament that is not the preeminent postseason college basketball tournament led OSU for the last 37 minutes of the game, but hey, the alternate reality was fun to consider.

I still don’t know what to think about the NIT. Since I’ve run this website OSU has never run deep enough into the event for me to formulate a real opinion of it. On one hand, it’s sort of sad. Snubbed squads playing out the string for what exactly. A “we were the best of the other 283 teams” label?

So while I don’t necessarily think NIT runs (if you can call it that) are good or bad for individual teams, I do think they can affect programs. There was a genuine fervor that built during Oklahoma State’s three-game postseason run. People were pumped to be in GIA! Basketball mattered because it was good basketball and not because there was a trophy to be had at the end. In very strange ways, it was purer than the last few months of the season because these games were less about RPI and more about what was actually happening on the court.

Hard to say the NIT doesn’t have benefits for #OKState when you see the crowd tonight. Should be third-largest of season behind OU and Kansas.

— Mark Cooper (@mark_cooperjr) March 21, 2018

We even felt it on our site. A sometimes-apathetic bunch throughout the year (raises hand) turned giddy over the thought of possibly getting to the (other) final four, of watching just a few more games of quality hoops before the long offseason between basketball and football.

And while I don’t think this team will go down in the annals or this NIT championship run will necessarily be talked about for more than, like, a few days, I don’t think it was nothing, either. Something was stirred up this postseason as OSU took down Florida Gulf Coast, Stanford and then fell short against WKU.

Was it a bridge between the 2017-18 season and 2018-19? I’m not sure about that. Maybe a poorly thrown rope to the other side of the canyon for us to dangerously repel across. Individual college basketball seasons encompass such unique auras. When I think about last season compared to this season, even though a lot of the same players are involved, the two stretches seemingly have very little in common with one another. They exist independently. Almost like a divorced couple still on good terms. Oh yeah, that used to be our life but it’s not anymore.

So this wasn’t about momentum or prestige or any of that. Programs, ultimately, are a function of how well a set of fans relates to and approves of the head coach. This is more true in college basketball than it is in college football for reasons I’m not totally sure of.

The importance of this three-game postseason to me is that Boynton coached every second like he was facing Roy Williams for the national title.

An aside: Boynton, for all we talk about strategy and crootin and all of those things, seems like he just freaking loves basketball. I don’t think Travis Ford was wired like that. I’m not sure about Brad Underwood. Coincidentally, Boynton’s joy for hoops reminds me a lot of Doug Gottlieb’s. I don’t believe Boynton doesn’t care about his salary or his power or any of those things, but I do think they’re lesser on the totem pole than his unadulterated passion for basketball and how it works and how people play it. I’m intrigued by people who are obsessed with very specific commodities, and thus Boynton intrigues me.

The end is always hard. My goal is to play on the final day of the season, and one day, we will. This team will be a big reason why. Thanks to all of our fans for embracing our kids and staff. The foundation is laid… The Rowdy is Back… And the future is bright. #GoPokes

— Mike Boynton (@thacoachmike) March 22, 2018

Anyway, this NIT run was a good reminder in a season full of them of what GIA could be, of what Boynton could be. Because in the end, players pass through the confines of that building and are molded by Boynton and his staff. They are the representation of the program but as individuals they are not the program. Collectively yes, but the program-makers are that building and that coach. And what we saw this season (and maybe even more so this postseason) is that coach and gym, teacher and hearth are collectively capable of constructing (and indeed have constructed) once and future kings.