Richie Riley wanted to be absolutely sure before he broke the good news to his team. Around 9:30 p.m. Sunday, the South Alabama men’s basketball coach once again asked Dan Gavitt, vice president of basketball for the NCAA, and Sun Belt Conference commissioner Keith Gill, if the Jaguars’ sudden invitation to this year’s National Invitation Tournament (NIT) was real.
“I asked them, ‘Is this for sure?’” Riley said. “They said, ‘Yeah, congratulations.’”
So Riley told his team to join a last-minute Zoom meeting in 15 minutes.
He informed the Jaguars their season wasn’t done just yet. Some players, overjoyed by the news that they had another shot to play together this year, broke down in tears. They all gathered at the school’s gym to put up shots and talk about potential matchups, genuinely elated about what was supposedly still ahead.
A little after 11 p.m. Sunday, Gavitt and Gill together called Riley once again. When he picked up, the Sun Belt coach of the year couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Gavitt, who is also the chair of the NIT board of members, told Riley there had been a mix-up. UC Riverside (20-12, 14-6), which finished tied for third in the Big West standings, was going to be in the NIT, not South Alabama.
Contrary to initial reports that the Highlanders had previously declined an NIT invite, athletic director Wesley Mallette said Tuesday that UC Riverside found out it was in the NIT the same time as everyone else: when the bracket was announced.
UC Riverside had committed to play in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) Sunday afternoon after several days of conversations with the tournament’s organizers. The Highlanders had not heard from folks at the NIT at all during the days leading up to Selection Sunday. Mallette said when the NIT field was officially revealed, the NCAA gave UC Riverside officials 15 minutes to decide between the NIT or CBI. They ultimately went with the NIT for the program’s first postseason appearance in its 24 years as a Division I program.
It wasn’t until Monday that Mallette’s jubilation was tempered by the reality that some other mid-major coming off a fantastic season was left heartbroken.
“I literally felt sick to my stomach,” Mallette said Tuesday. “People cannot lose sight of the fact that the best interest of student athletes in this situation was compromised.”
At a team meeting on Monday morning, Riley told his players of the odd circumstances that had ended their season. This time, tears of sorrow flowed.
“It’s unacceptable with the way it played out,” Riley said. “That was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do in my life. It’s a shame our players had to live with that range of emotions over a 12- to 15-hour time span.”
“As the top remaining at-large team not selected to the original field, South Alabama was prematurely contacted by the NIT on Sunday as a potential replacement team to fill out the 32-team bracket,” the Sun Belt Conference said in a statement after the NIT mishap. “With all 32 teams accepting their NIT invitations, this opportunity did not materialize. We regret the emotional impact this chain of events had on South Alabama’s student-athletes and want to congratulate Sun Belt Coach of the Year Richie Riley and his team on a historic season, including a Sun Belt regular-season co-championship.”
— NIT (@NITMBB) March 17, 2025
In a statement Monday morning, Gavitt said, “After the NIT bracket was released Sunday evening, it was brought to the NIT’s attention that one of the teams scheduled to participate in the tournament had also committed to a non-NCAA affiliated postseason event. In an effort to secure another participating team, the NIT prematurely extended an invitation to the South Alabama Jaguars, prior to learning that the original team chose to accept its invitation to the NIT.”
South Alabama finished 21-11 in the Sun Belt this year and was the regular season conference champion by virtue of tiebreakers for the four-team deadlock atop the standings. The Jaguars saw their NCAA Tournament hopes evaporate on March 9 in a 74-71 conference tournament semifinal loss to Arkansas State, a team they beat twice in the regular season.
The Sun Belt, like most conferences, usually gets just one team into the NCAA Tournament: the automatic qualifier who wins the Sun Belt tournament. After its loss to Arkansas State, South Alabama’s postseason hopes hinged on one of the three other postseason tournaments that play out in the shadow of March Madness: the NIT, the CBI and the new College Basketball Crown tournament based in Las Vegas.
South Alabama athletic director Joel Erdmann said that after the Sun Belt tournament loss, the university informed the NIT selection committee of its desire to be in the running. But the Jaguars initially weren’t part of the 32-team NIT field when it was announced on social media Sunday, hours after the unveiling of the NCAA Tournament bracket. When he received that call from Gavitt and Gill, Erdmann believed his fortunes had turned.
Riley believes his team deserved a chance to keep playing, regardless of the chaotic nature of what transpired regarding the NIT selection. South Alabama finished with a higher NET ranking than five of the teams in the NIT. The NCAA in 2023 changed the NIT’s selection process, doing away with the previously automatic bids for regular-season conference champions who did not win their conference tournaments.
“Our sport is like no other sport,” Riley said. “Whoever wins the conference tournament in a one-bid league goes to the tournament. Everyone else is left home. The high-major guys have monopolized everything. That’s happened, and we’re here. If you look at teams in the NCAA Tournament, NIT and now the Crown (tournament), there’s multiple teams with losing records, and there’s certainly multiple teams with losing conference records.”
Mallette said he spoke on the phone with Erdmann and Riley this week. The consensus among everyone involved is improved communication from organizational bodies can help prevent a team feeling shattered the way the Jaguars were when Riley informed them the season was over.
“All of this could’ve been avoided. And now what do we have? We have everybody in college basketball talking about this,” Mallette said. “I’m not mad at the NCAA. I’m not mad at the NIT. I just wish they had picked up the phone and called us Friday or Saturday.”
“Maybe this unfortunate circumstance nudges some changes along,” Erdmann said.
Riley said this year, his seventh at South Alabama, was the most enjoyable season he’s ever had as a coach. The sour ending won’t diminish the Jaguars’ achievements.
“We have one of the most unique teams in the country,” he said. “This roster was put together with zero NIL, one of the very few in the country. They won 21 games. A lot of underdog guys that came from Division II programs, NAIA programs or Division I programs where basically everyone had given up on them.”
As for UC Riverside, its season ended on Wednesday night with a 101-62 NIT first-round loss at Santa Clara.
(Photo: Petre Thomas / Imagn Images)
