The Bells Must Ring - A Rutgers Basketball History Blog: Rutgers 59

Newark Star-Ledger - March 2, 1969

The above article may give some sense of the dynamics of post-season play 50 years ago especially with regard to the NIT. While there had been some mention of Rutgers making the NCAA tournament, hard as it may seem to believe, not a lot of attention was paid to the NCAA and the goal was really making the NIT. In 1969 only 25 teams made the NCAA tournament which meant seven teams got a first-round bye to the Sweet 16. Rutgers path to the NCAA would have been through the Eastern Coast Athletic Conference, more of an affiliation than a conference, which selected three teams for the NCAA tournament. In 1969 the three were St. John's, Villanova and St. Joseph's - the Philadelphia schools went out in the first round while St. John's made it as far as the second round. Of the 25 teams in the NCAA tournament, Rutgers had played two - defeating Princeton by one point and losing to Colorado State by one. CSU lost in the regional final to a Drake team that gave UCLA fits in the Final Four. With all of the NIT games played at Madison Square Garden, then college basketball's biggest stage, the NIT was in some ways the more prestigious event. It was during this same time period that Army received its only NCAA bid in school history which it declined because Bobby Knight thought they had a chance of winning the NIT. St. John's also was sometimes a reluctant participant in the NCAA.