How have Kansas and Kansas State fared in their trips to the NIT?
How have Kansas and Kansas State fared in their trips to the NIT?
The Jayhawks don't have much of an NIT history, which isn't surprising considering the frequency of the team's appearances in the NCAA Tournament.
Kansas has made the NCAA 22 straight times, which is the longest active streak in basketball and third longest in history.
The last time KU failed to make the NCAA Tournament was in 1989, when the Jayhawks were serving a one-year postseason ban. That also included the NIT.
KU's last NIT appearance came in 1969, when it lost to Boston College in the first round in New York.
In the Jayhawks' only other appearance, KU won three games to reach the 1968 title game before losing to Dayton.
Kansas State has played in the NIT seven times, with similar results to Wichita State, minus the championship.
They lost first round games in 1976, 1998 and 1999. They lost in the second round 1992, 2007 and 2009.
In 1994 the Wildcats won three games to reach the semifinals at Madison Square Garden. Once there, K-State lost to Vanderbilt in the semifinals and Siena in the now-defunct third-place game.
That tournament run will most be remembered by the Wildcats' last game at Manhattan: a 115-77 rout of Fresno State in the third round.
Askia Jones scored a school-record 62 points against the Bulldogs at Bramlage Coliseum.
The senior guard set five single-game Big Eight records in the game including points and three-pointers (14).
Jones made 18 of 25 shots, including 14 of 18 threes. He scored 45 points in the second half.
"Guarded, unguarded it didn't matter, he knocked them down," then-K-State coach Dana Altman said. ''Sixty-two points in 28 minutes, that's a pretty good night."
How have recent NIT champions done the year following their win?
Not great.
Dayton, the 2010 champion, was in the NIT this year. 2009 champ Penn State didn't even get that far in 2010. Ohio State lost in the first round of the 2009 NCAA Tournament after winning the '08 NIT.
A year after winning the 2007 NIT, West Virginia reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
The NIT runner-ups have done better the past two years. Both North Carolina and Baylor reached the NCAA Elite Eight a season after losing the NIT title game.
—Joshua Wood
This story was originally published April 3, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "How have Kansas and Kansas State fared in their trips to the NIT?."