No NIT for USC: Frank Martin’s Gamecocks snubbed for postseason on Selection Sunday
The season is over for the South Carolina men’s basketball team.
Despite metrics that pointed to postseason play, the Gamecocks (18-13, 9-9 SEC) did not receive a bid to the 32-team National Invitation Tournament when the field was announced Sunday night.
The NIT snub extends USC’s postseason dry spell another year. Frank Martin’s Gamecocks haven’t made the NCAA tournament since 2017’s historic Final Four run. However, the 2020 Gamecocks seemed likely to at least earn an NIT bid before COVID-19 cut the season short.
No one among South Carolina, Clemson or Furman made the NCAA tournament nor the NIT despite winning records. The 32-team NIT field does include Vanderbilt — a team USC beat twice this season — and a Texas A&M team that the Gamecocks defeated on the road.
Despite finishing behind USC in the SEC standings and going 0-2 head-to-head, Vanderbilt (17-16, 7-11) earned a No. 4 seed in the NIT, likely on the strength of its No. 66 NET ranking. Following a one-and-done showing against Mississippi State as a No. 7 seed in the SEC tournament, the Gamecocks dropped to No. 93 in the NET rankings.
After struggling through the pandemic and going just 6-15 last season, Martin retooled the roster and brought in nine new players and the Gamecocks finished the regular season in a five-way tie for fifth in the SEC. Season highlights included wins over LSU, at Texas A&M and against Florida State and UAB, but losses to Princeton and Coastal Carolina hurt the team’s overall resume.
Martin and veteran players like Erik Stevenson have expressed frustration with the NET and the emphasis it places on efficiency and scoring margin, two areas where USC lags behind.
Martin has pointed to the strength of USC’s schedule — No. 35 on WarrenNolan.com — and the team’s .500 record in conference play as reasons why he believes the Gamecocks should be an NCAA tournament team.
“I’ve been in the Big 12 where teams finished .500, and they were celebrated,” Martin said. “For whatever reason here we always have to apologize for being .500 in the No. 1 league in the country. That doesn’t make sense to me. I think (Kentucky coach John) Calipari said it best the other day ... all these teams that have finished 9-9, this league’s got no bottom and it’s really, really hard.”
Frank Martin’s South Carolina coaching history
This story was originally published March 13, 2022 at 9:24 PM.
