Ohio State was just selected to participate in its ninth National Invitational Tournament. It’s not what Buckeye fans wanted from this transition season, but at this point, it’s all we have left. We might as well enjoy it. After this, only a brief oasis of spring football exists to break up the oblivion that awaits us from the last second of the hoops season until kickoff this fall.
No one wants their team to go to the NIT, because obviously it means their beloved squad missed the big dance. But, historically, is the NIT a springboard for something more? Herein we’ll take a look at the previous eight trips to the NIT and how Ohio State did the following year.
We begin with the first ever appearance by the Buckeyes, way back in 1979. Eldon Miller guided his Buckeyes to the school’s first postseason appearance since 1971.
Guards Kelvin Ransey, Todd Penn and Carter Scott, power forward Jim Smith, and center Herb Williams led the Buckeyes that year. Ransey averaged 21 points per game and Williams averaged a double-double (19.9 ppg, 10.4 rpg). Quarterback Art Schlichter even made eight appearances that season as a guard.
The team went 17-10 in the regular season (12-6 in Big Ten play), finishing fourth in the conference. It throttled St. Joseph’s in the first round of the NIT and slipped past Maryland in Round 2 to reach the semifinals. The run ended there with a 64-55 loss to Indiana. The Hoosiers went on to nip Purdue by a point in the championship, while the Buckeyes fell to Alabama 96-86 in the third-place game to end the season 19-12.
| NIT Year | Result | Next Year | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | NIT Semifinals | 1980 | NCAA Sweet 16 |
| 1984 | NIT 1st Round | 1985 | NCAA 2nd Round |
| 1986 | NIT Champions | 1987 | NCAA 2nd Round |
| 1988 | NIT Runner-Up | 1989 | NIT Quarterfinals |
| 1989 | NIT Quarterfinals | 1990 | NCAA 2nd Round |
| 1993 | NIT 1st Round | 1994 | No Postseason |
| 2003 | NIT 1st Round | 2004 | No Postseason |
| 2008 | NIT Champions | 2009 | NCAA 1st Round |
| 2016 | ? | 2017 | ? |
The next season, Ohio State bounced back by adding freshman forward Clark Kellogg to the starting lineup. Penn also came off the bench. The Buckeyes went 21-8 in 1979-80, reaching the NCAA Sweet 16 before falling in a close game against UCLA, 72-68.
Miller took the Buckeyes back to the NIT a few years later, at the end of the 1983-84 season. That year’s squad boasted a solid backcourt of Ron Stokes and Troy Taylor. Forward Tony Campbell was also a standout, averaging 18.6 points and 7.4 boards, but the rest of the starting lineup was just filler. Guard Dave Jones and forward Clarence McGee only combined to average 10 points per game. Ohio State tied for fifth in the conference and finished the regular season at 15-13.
The Buckeyes fell to in-state Xavier in the first round of the NIT that season, 60-57. Xavier escaped Nebraska, 58-57, in its next game before losing to Michigan, 63-62. The Wolverines actually won the tournament.
Ohio State bounced back behind sophomore guard/forward Dennis Hopson, who started alongside Stokes and Taylor, center Brad Sellers and forward Joe Concheck. The 1984-85 team reached the second round of the NCAA tournament, finishing 20-10 (11-7), tying for third in the B1G. Ohio State handled Iowa State by 11 in the first round of the tourney, but lost to No. 8 Louisiana Tech, 79-67 in Tulsa, OK.
The very next season was another NIT trip for Ohio State. The team missed Stokes and Taylor, even though Hopson and Sellers combined for about 40 points and 18 rebounds per game. The Buckeyes went just 8-10 in conference play to finish seventh in the Big Ten and ended the season with a 14-14 mark. But the team put together five consecutive wins in the 1986 NIT, beating Ohio University, Texas and BYU to reach the semifinals. From there, Ohio State got revenge over Louisiana Tech for the previous year’s NCAA tournament knockout, winning 79-66 to reach the final. The Buckeyes beat Wyoming by 13 to capture the tournament championship. It was Eldon Miller’s final season in Columbus.
In 1986-87, under new coach Gary Williams, the Buckeyes returned to the NCAA tournament, going 19-12 in the regular season and 9-9 in the B1G. Hopson averaged 29 points per game and Jay Burson and Curtis Wilson came into their own as the shooting and point guards, respectively. Williams’ Buckeyes took out Kentucky in the first round of the 1987 NCAA tourney, 91-77. But then ninth-seeded Ohio State lost a heartbreaker to top seed Georgetown, 82-79.
Williams proceeded to take Ohio State to back-to-back NIT appearances for the first time in school history in 1988 and 1989. The 1987-88 team went 16-12 (9-9) in the regular season, finishing sixth in the Big Ten. That OSU squad was done in by a 4-9 road record. A starting five of Jerry Francis, Perry Carter, Tony White, Jay Burson, and Curtis Wilson led the Buckeyes to wins over Old Dominion, Cleveland State, New Mexico and Colorado State, threatening to win the school its second NIT title in three years. But UConn dashed those plans with a 72-67 win in the final.
For the first time, Ohio State didn’t return to the NCAA tournament the year after an NIT appearance. Instead, the Buckeyes returned to the consolation tourney, beating Akron and Nebraska before falling to St. John’s, 83-80. Williams left for Maryland after the season, bequeathing the team to Randy Ayers.
Ayers then did what had been done almost every previous year after an NIT appearance — he led Ohio State back to the big dance. Following a 16-12 campaign (10-8) in which the Buckeyes ended the 1989-90 season sixth in the Big Ten, Ohio State reached March Madness. The No. 8 seed Buckeyes nipped Providence in overtime, 84-83, in the first round, but then top seed UNLV ousted Ohio State, 76-65. Basketball fans may remember that UNLV team was special that year. It won the national championship that season and beat Duke in the final by 30 points.
After Ayers reached the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight the next two seasons, he and the Buckeyes returned to the NIT in 1993, where Ohio State fell in the first round to Miami of Ohio, 56-53. It was the beginning of the end for Ayers, who did not make the postseason in any of the next four years.
It was 10 years before the Buckeyes appeared in the NIT again, this time under Jim O’Brien. And again, the team was ousted in the first round. Georgia Tech knocked off O’Brien’s team, 72-58, and after missing the postseason entirely in 2004, O’Brien too was gone.
Fans better remember the 2007-08 Ohio State team that won the NIT. Thad Matta’s 2008-09 team returned to the NCAA tournament the following season, although the Buckeyes lost in the first round against Siena, 74-72 in double overtime.
After five of the eight previous trips to the NIT, Ohio State has rebounded to make the NCAA tournament the following year. After two such trips, there wasn’t any postseason the next year. And after one NIT jaunt, the team returned to the same tournament the next season.
Based on historical precedent, the odds appear ever in Ohio State's favor that this year’s trip to the National Invitational Tournament will result in an NCAA appearance in 2017.
