Question for those who remember the Wooden years

[UcMiami]

Also, during the first half of that run, the NIT was a comparable tournament to the NCAA, and there were NIT champs that could have given UCLA a game. I'm not suggesting any of them would have beaten UCLA in a "real" NC game, but all the best teams didn't necessarily play in the NCAAs like they do now. Teams could opt to play in one tournament or the other. Prior to UCLA's run, the NIT was considered by many to be the premier tournament of the two.

Just a correction on NIT - during the UCLA run up until 1975, the only teams that got into the NCAA were conference champions - zero at-large bids and the total number of conferences varied from a low of 22 to a high of 27 during the sixties through 1974. 1975 was the first year with any at large bids - I believe 5. And it was the beginning of the end of the NIT. Up until then, if the two best teams in the country were in a single conference, the conference winner was in the NCAA and the #2 team in the country went to the NIT. By 1980 when they expanded to 48 teams the NCAA included at least the top 25 teams in the country either as conference champs or as at large bids, and the NIT became clearly the 'losers bracket' from the regular season and an 'also ran' tournament. In 1985 when it went to 64 teams, it just further degraded the NIT.
During the no at large bids era - the competition in the NIT could be much better because 3/4 of the teams in the NCAA were 'mid-majors' (though the concept of 'power conferences' wasn't as well defined or as distinguishing.) The NIT was an invitational so they were taking the best remaining teams regardless of conference so no 'cupcakes' like what the first two rounds of the NCAA were for many teams.

 

[JordyG]

Just a correction on NIT - during the UCLA run up until 1975, the only teams that got into the NCAA were conference champions - zero at-large bids and the total number of conferences varied from a low of 22 to a high of 27 during the sixties through 1974. 1975 was the first year with any at large bids - I believe 5. And it was the beginning of the end of the NIT. Up until then, if the two best teams in the country were in a single conference, the conference winner was in the NCAA and the #2 team in the country went to the NIT. By 1980 when they expanded to 48 teams the NCAA included at least the top 25 teams in the country either as conference champs or as at large bids, and the NIT became clearly the 'losers bracket' from the regular season and an 'also ran' tournament. In 1985 when it went to 64 teams, it just further degraded the NIT.
During the no at large bids era - the competition in the NIT could be much better because 3/4 of the teams in the NCAA were 'mid-majors' (though the concept of 'power conferences' wasn't as well defined or as distinguishing.) The NIT was an invitational so they were taking the best remaining teams regardless of conference so no 'cupcakes' like what the first two rounds of the NCAA were for many teams.

Well said. But the beginning of the end for the NIT was the point shaving scandal involving CCNY in 1950-51. That's when the NCAA tournament became the viable alternative and the NCAA slowly began to expand their tourney. This is one reason why the NCAA kept and were able to keep their scandals so close to the vest especially during the Wooden era. Now of course there are no real alternatives.