Alexander: UC Irvine basketball savors NIT experience others dismiss

There are those who say the National Invitation Tournament, that venerable college basketball institution that dates to 1938 – one year before the NCAA Tournament was founded – is on its last legs.

Too much competition in the postseason basketball sector, you see. Too many big schools who aren’t interested, and too much talk about expanding March Madness from 68 schools to 76, or 90, or whatever it takes to get that 17th-place Big Ten team or 15th-place SEC squad into the field.

But don’t dare talk about that at UC Irvine...