Indiana State is currently in the NIT Final Four. The Sycamores were on fire after Tuesday night’s win over Cincinnati, and they are one of the most complete basketball teams in the country. There’s no question this team could make the NCAA Tournament, but some short-sighted decisions cost them. Now we’re left wondering how much better they would have been had they been in the big dance.
Indiana State University was one of the better things to happen in college basketball this year. The school’s success in 2023-2024 is reminiscent of the halcyon days of Larry Bird, when one stunning performance overturned decades of mediocrity. In the end, a 29-6 record wasn’t good enough for the selection committee, who discounted the Sycamores’ loss to Drake in the Missouri Valley Tournament and pushed Indiana State into the NIT.
This choice was the exact opposite of everything we love about college basketball in March. Here, instead of an exciting mid-major team led by one of the nation’s most intriguing players, bespectacled, do-it-all big man Robbie Avila, we were treated to Virginia’s stifling mediocrity (23-11). ) was exposed to. He bounced back in the first four innings.
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Now that they’ve reached the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament and reached the Final Eight in the NIT, it’s safe to say it would be foolish not to see Indiana State’s big dance. What’s happening away from the brightest lights of March is that sycamores are running through the competition with relative ease.
On Tuesday night, they defeated Cincinnati, their toughest competition in the NIT thus far, but also against a program considered to be better because of their conference. The Sycamores did what they have done all year, played complete team basketball, and dominated the Bearcats.
Avila scored 22 points and three other players scored in double figures. It was another work night for Indiana State, which continued to dance in the NIT.
Robbie Avila is the ultimate team player
The NCAA’s poor man’s Nikola Jokic, Avila is a must-have player this season. Pickups Even though he resembles his dad in the game, Avila with great athletic ability is such an unselfish throwback player that he can’t be ignored.
Avila’s shooting hasn’t fallen as much in the NIT, so he’s focused more on his role as a distributor in the paint, kicking the ball out to Indiana State’s talented guards. He’s averaging 5.5 rebounds and seven assists in two games, drawing fouls and knocking down 13-of-15 from the line.
It’s just…fun because the majority of the Sycamore offense flows through Avila. That’s something we don’t see very often. It would have been fascinating to see how he stacked up against some of the best big men in the NCAA Tournament like Zach Eady, Donovan Clingan and Armando Bacot, but the committee took that away from us. .
The Sycamores have two overlooked stud guards.
All the headlines have centered around Avila because he is a unicorn, but what makes Indiana State so fascinating is that they are not a one-horse team. The NIT showed this, trading away Jason Kent and Ryan Conwell. Large scale game.
Against SMU, Kent drove the lane with overwhelming athleticism and scored 35 points. There was a clear “next man up” element to Indiana State’s opener, and he was overjoyed as SMU was committed to stopping Avila.
And in Round 16, Minnesota got stronger in the middle and was able to stop Kent, but Conwell destroyed them from the outside, shooting 6-of-8 from beyond the arc on the way to a 23-point performance. I showed you.
If this all sounds exciting, that’s because it actually is
Indiana State University is really great.They are the team that will do that. everyone’s They became the second team in the NCAA Tournament after the favorites were eliminated. Now they are just making the selection committee look foolish for robbing us of something beautiful.
Will the Sycamores remain a Sweet 16 team? Maybe not. Still, there’s absolutely no doubt that we could have gotten better basketball from them than some on this field.
There are lessons for the future here. That means the tournament selection committee needs to listen to the people. Look, I know a lot of the process is about money and name recognition, but it ignores teams with Cinderella-like qualities who just put in the effort. slightly Adding more attention to the power conferences would detract from what this tournament is supposed to be about.
The irony of all this is that if Indiana State had advanced, it would have certainly attracted more curious attention than almost anyone else in the field. Avila has been trending on TikTok all season thanks to his unique look and game, which would have drawn even more attention into March Madness.
Big-name basketball schools may be the building blocks of the NCAA Tournament, but the mid-majors are the glue that holds the tournament together. Let them dance.
