Hawkeyes Look Forward to NIT

A few big-name programs decided to skip the NIT this season.

Iowa wasn’t going to do that, coach Fran McCaffery said on Monday.

The Hawkeyes (18-14) will play host to Kansas State (19-14) in Tuesday’s NIT first-round game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, and McCaffery knows the value of playing in the 32-team tournament.

Several programs, including Indiana from the Big Ten along with St. John’s, Oklahoma and Pittsburgh, declined NIT invitations or took their names out of consideration.

Asked about that on Monday, McCaffery said, “No. Would never consider it. We want to keep playing. We want to keep coaching, players want to keep playing. And that’s what we’re supposed to be doing now.”

McCaffery bristled when asked about the value of playing in a postseason tournament that isn’t the NCAA tournament.

“This is a ridiculous conversation,” he said. “It’s obvious what the value is. People don’t want to play, it’s on them. Ask them why they don’t want to play. We’re playing. We want to play. We’re going to continue to play. We’re going to get better. It’s obvious.”

Iowa got itself into a position to contend for an NCAA tournament berth with a stretch of four wins in five games, but a loss to Illinois in the regular-season finale and a loss to Ohio State in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament erased any of those hopes.

The Hawkeyes are a No. 3 seed in one of the four quadrants of the bracket, but McCaffery said that number doesn’t matter.

“It’s not an exact science,” he said. “We’re happy to be playing. Again, I think it’s a senseless debate. The tournament is already set.”

It’s Iowa’s fourth NIT appearance under McCaffery, and the first two of those appearances made an impact on the program. McCaffery’s 2011-12 team was the first Hawkeye team to make the postseason in six seasons. A year later, Iowa reached the NIT championship game. The 2016-17 team split its two games in the tournament.

Iowa is one of three Big Ten teams in the field, joining Ohio State and Minnesota.

The Hawkeyes will be challenged right away against the Wildcats, who went 8-10 in the Big 12 this season.

Kansas State has three players who average in double figures in scoring — guard Tylor Perry (15.5 ppg), forward Arthur Kaluma (14.7 ppg) and guard Cam Carter (14.6 ppg). The three are also the Wildcats’ leaders in 3-point field goals.

“It’s a very impressive team on film,” McCaffery said. “A well-coached team, a lot of really good players. So they can hurt you in a lot of ways. Obviously they’re battle tested in that conference, a great conference. So we’re excited to play them.”