Tom Crean passionately condemns Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Indiana for declining NIT invitation

Every year with the announcement of the NCAA Tournament field a handful of teams are snubbed and instead get the opportunity to play in the NIT. Seemingly every year a team or two turns that opportunity down.

This year there were more than a few.

Among the teams that turned down NIT invitations were Indiana, Ole Miss, Oklahoma, Memphis, St. John’s and Pittsburgh. The sheer number left one former coach and current college basketball analyst fuming: Tom Crean.

“There’s no question about it,” Crean said on ESPN. “I would want to coach, I would want to develop my team. You’ve got bigger staffs than you’ve ever had. There’s plenty of time for the portal. There’s plenty of time to talk to recruits. There’s plenty of time to negotiate NIL deals.

“There’s not plenty of time to play. There’s not plenty of time to get your players on the floor and give them a chance to get better. There’s not plenty of time for guys to continue to play that may never get to play again. And that to me is absolutely ridiculous.”

Tom Crean goes off about college basketball teams declining invitations to the NIT. 🏀🔥

(h/t: @Matt_Fortuna) pic.twitter.com/0O9SpdO1GT

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 18, 2024

That’s not to say that every decision is made equally. Each team has different circumstances.

Take Ole Miss, for example. The Rebels currently have a player, Jamarion Sharp, whose mother is in critical condition. Sharp has taken some time away from the team already to be with his mother, but surely it was taxing trying to play college basketball games knowing she was fighting for her life.

Coach Chris Beard cited Sharp’s situation as one reason Ole Miss turned down a bid.

“We have some guys dealing with some personal things off the court,” Beard told 247Sports. “Jamarion Sharp’s mother is in critical care. He did an amazing job the last couple weeks of the season with the pressure and everything he had going on with his family off the court. I wanted to personally thank Sharp for his commitment to the team. We have some guys academically that are working toward graduation. Timing right now just doesn’t put us in a situation where we think it’s the best thing to try and play in one of those tournaments.”

Still, the proliferation of teams declining NIT bids citing a focus on the transfer portal could easily become a trend. There are several teams this year who opted to cut their postseasons short.

That’s not something Crean can get behind.

“It’s each coach’s choice, I get it,” Crean said. “But if you take away a chance to play the games, to put your team on the floor… let them opt out. The bowl season has it all the time. Let it happen, who cares? Give your players and coaches a chance to keep coaching and playing and don’t shortchange. If a guy doesn’t want to play, go sit down. If a coach doesn’t want to coach, go recruit.

“But there’s got to be enough people to put five, six, seven people on the floor and go play. It makes absolutely zero sense to me.”