NIT Recap: All the mid-majors lost, but at least Will Wade went bonkers

Every mid-major team that played in the NIT Wednesday night was sent on the road, and every one of those teams lost. It was a rough night.

But there was one game that somewhat salvaged things. Sure, LSU defeated Louisiana, 84-76, but that game included the coaches needing to be held back from each other, a postgame handshake fracas, and Will Wade giving a memorable rant in his postgame presser.

Time to catch up on everything that happened:

LSU 84, Louisiana 76

Chris had a good recap of the rant last night, so I won’t delve too far into that. Wade covered team sheets, resumes, NIT seeding, and more, and it was actually impressive how much he knows off the top of his head.

Wade also yelled at Bobby Marlin, the Louisiana head coach:

That came when Wade called a timeout up by nine with 30 seconds left. His reasoning? So that Louisiana could “sit there and enjoy the opportunity to play us.”

As for the game itself, the Ragin’ Cajuns hung tough most of the way and got 21 points from Frank Bartley IV. Duop Reath scored 26 for the Tigers while Tremont Waters had nine points and seven assists.

Marquette 67, Harvard 60

Playing without Seth Towns, Harvard staged a late comeback to put a scare into Marquette but did not quite have the firepower to erase an 18-point second-half deficit. Justin Bassey scored 16 of his 19 points in the second half, include eight in the final four minutes, but Marquette hit its free throws down the stretch. Markus Howard had 22 for Marquette and hit all nine of his free throw attempts.

Utah 69, UC Davis 59

Maybe it’s something about the NIT, but coaches last night seemed to LOVE throwing temper-tantrums. Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak got ejected and toppled some chairs on his way out of a game that UC Davis actually led heading into the fourth quarter:

The Aggies led by as many as 11 in the second half before going cold from the field and watching Justin Bibbins bring the Utes back. UC Davis had four players in double-figures, but T.J. Shorts attempted just six shots. He still managed six rebounds and five assists.

Stanford 86, BYU 83

Hey, speaking of coaching temper tantrums, Dave Rose’s technical doesn’t really compare to the outbursts above, but it was more important to his team. Rose was T’d up with Stanford up 14 late in the game, and his Cougars responded with a 10-0 run to put a real scare into the Cardinal. Stanford then went back up by 10 with 36 seconds left, AND BYU CAME BACK AGAIN SOMEHOW. T.J. Haws and Elijah Bryant each hit threes to bring BYU within two with six seconds left. Haws missed what would have been a game-tying three at the buzzer.

And now, we have to ask the question: was this BYU’s last men’s basketball game as a member of the West Coast Conference?

Washington 77, Boise State 74

I’m still sad that we didn’t get to see Chandler Hutchison in the NCAA Tournament, but he went out strong on Wednesday, scoring 39 points and grabbing 14 rebounds in a loss to Washington. He scored the Broncos’ final seven points, bringing them to within a possession with a shot to send the game to overtime. Lexus Williams missed what would have been the game-tying three as time expired. Christian Sengfelder had 15-and-14 in his final game.

Mids in the Second Round:

Middle Tennessee at Louisville, Sunday, 6:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2
Washington at Saint Mary’s, Monday, 11 p.m. ET, ESPNU
Western Kentucky at USC, Monday, 11:30 p.m., ESPN2