Once upon a drearier time, a trip to the NIT would have felt like a positive development for the Rutgers basketball program. Bonus hoops. Home games in Piscataway. Maybe even a nice late March trip to Madison Square Garden.
Remember: The Scarlet Knights went 13 seasons from 2006-19 with no postseason bid at all. This was mostly during an era when all a team like Rutgers had to do was crack .500 to earn a bid and a few NIT home games, and even back then, they couldn’t qualify.