UNC basketball misses March Madness, declines NIT invitation

The season is over for North Carolina's men's basketball team, which missed the NCAA Tournament and will not participate in the NIT.

UNC announced the decision Sunday evening and released a statement from second-year head coach Hubert Davis.

"All season, our focus and goal have been on being the best team we can possibly become and reaching our full potential to give us another opportunity to compete, play for and win an NCAA championship. Although we no longer have that opportunity and this season wasn't what we had hoped for, I want to thank our players and staff for their hard work and love for Carolina Basketball," Davis said.

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"Many factors go into postseason play, and we believe now is the time to focus on moving ahead, preparing for next season and the opportunity to again compete for ACC and NCAA championships. I also want to thank our great fans for their incredible support. Our commitment to you is what drives us to improve our program in every way."

The Tar Heels (20-13) are the first preseason No. 1 team to miss the NCAA Tournament since the field expanded in 1985. After UNC’s 68-59 loss to Virginia, several players seemed disinterested in participating in the NIT.

When Carolina missed the NCAA Tournament in 2010, the Tar Heels advanced to the championship game of the NIT. They also accepted a bid in 2003. Overall, UNC has six NIT appearances, winning it all in 1971.

But this team, which returned four starters from a squad that had a 15-point halftime lead in the national championship before watching Kansas snatch away the title, had bigger aspirations. The Tar Heels finish the 2022-23 season with a 20-13 record.

Rodd Baxley can be reached at rbaxley@fayobserver.com or @RoddBaxley on Twitter.

UNC not in NCAA Tournament: Tom Penders rips declining NIT ...

An invitation to the NIT wasn't good enough for the University of North Carolina men's basketball team, and one former NCAA coach believes the Tar Heels should be held accountable.

College Basketball Hall of Famer Tom Penders said UNC should be fined for declining an invitation to the NIT and urged the NCAA basketball committee to "remember this slap in the face," according to a tweet posted to Penders' Twitter account Sunday night.

"ARROGANCE!" Penders wrote. "UNC should get fined big bucks! The NCAA basketball committee should remember this slap in the face. The NIT started before the NCAA tournament."

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NCAA TOURNAMENT SNUBS:Oklahoma State, Rutgers North Carolina get burned by being left out

In a follow-up Tweet, Penders slammed Tar Heels head coach Hubert Davis, saying the team "rarely played hard and together" and that "Coach Davis has to step up and take the blame" for UNC missing out on the NCAA tournament.

"The Tar Heels rarely played hard and together," Penders wrote. "That’s on the coaching staff! They’re not helping themselves by turning down an NIT bid. That, in itself tells me that the players were running this team.

"Coach Davis has to step up and take the blame. Show people that he’s in charge."

Penders posted a career head-coaching record of 649-437 across stops that included Houston, Rhode Island, Texas and George Washington. among others. He was named Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year in 1987.

UNC (20-13) became the first team to miss the NCAA tournament after being named the No. 1 team in preseason rankings since the field expanded in 1985.

In a statement released by the school, Davis explained UNC's postseason philosophy but did not specifically address the decision to skip the NIT after being denied an NCAA tournament bid.

"All season, our focus and goal have been on being the best team we can possibly become and reaching our full potential to give us another opportunity to compete, play for and win an NCAA championship," Davis said in the statement. "Although we no longer have that opportunity and this season wasn't what we had hoped for, I want to thank our players and staff for their hard work and love for Carolina Basketball.

"Many factors go into postseason play, and we believe now is the time to focus on moving ahead, preparing for next season and the opportunity to again compete for ACC and NCAA championships."

NIT selection show: Which teams made National Invitational ...

As teams find out it if they made the men's NCAA Tournament, those that fall just short won't have their seasons come to an end.

The National Invitation Tournament, or NIT, had its selection show Sunday night, with 32 teams set to compete in the postseason tournament.

Played every year since 1938 – except in 2020 – the NIT has been known for games being played on college campuses in the opening rounds instead of a neutral site, with the semifinal and final round being held at Madison Square Garden in New York City. While the tournament is back for another edition in 2023, some changes will made this year, including a new final round site.

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When is the 2023 NIT?

The NIT will begin with opening round action on March 14-15. Here is the full schedule of the tournament:

First round: March 14-15

Second round: March 18-19

Quarterfinal: March 21-22

Semifinal: March 28

Final: March 30

How are teams selected to the NIT?

The NIT selects teams that were just short of making the NCAA Tournament, but they don't have to accept a bid if the school does not want to. Teams that also won their conference regular season title but didn't win their conference tournament, and therefore didn't make the NCAA Tournament, are given automatic berths should they accept.

Teams eligible for the tournament were: Eastern Washington, UC Irvine, Hofstra, Youngstown State, Yale, Bradley, Morehead State, Southern Miss, Alcorn State and Utah Valley.

Which teams made the NIT?

The NIT selection show was held Sunday night. Here are the first-round matchups:

Top left bracket

1. Oklahoma State vs. Youngstown State (7 p.m. ET on Wednesday, ESPN+)

4. Washington State vs. Eastern Washington (11 p.m. ET on Tuesday, ESPNU)

3. North Texas vs. Alcorn State (8 p.m. ET on Wednesday, ESPN+)

2. Sam Houston vs. Santa Clara (9 p.m. ET on Wednesday, ESPN+)

Bottom left bracket

1. Oregon vs. UC Irvine (11 p.m. ET on Wednesday, ESN2)

4. Florida vs. UCF (7 p.m. ET on Wednesday, ESPN2)

3. Wisconsin vs. Bradley (9:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, ESPN)

2. Liberty vs. Villanova (9 p.m. ET on Tuesday, ESPN2)

Top right bracket

1. Rutgers vs. Hofstra (7 p.m. ET on Tuesday, ESPNU)

4. Cincinnati vs. Virginia Tech (9 p.m. ET on Wednesday, ESPN2)

3. New Mexico vs. Utah Valley (10 p.m. ET on Wednesday, ESPN+)

2. Colorado vs. Seton Hall (11 p.m. ET on Tuesday, ESPN2)

Bottom right bracket

1. Clemson vs. Morehead State (7 p.m. ET on Wednesday, ESPN+)

4. UAB vs. Southern Miss (7:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday, ESPN+)

3. Vanderbilt vs. Yale (9 p.m. ET on Tuesday, ESPNU)

2. Michigan vs. Toledo (7 p.m. ET on Tuesday, ESPN2)

North Carolina opts not to participate in NIT

After missing out on the men's NCAA Tournament, North Carolina declared its season over. UNC announced Sunday night a decision to not compete in the NIT.

"All season, our focus and goal have been on being the best team we can possibly become and reaching our full potential to give us another opportunity to compete, play for and win an NCAA championship. Although we no longer have that opportunity and this season wasn't what we had hoped for, I want to thank our players and staff for their hard work and love for Carolina Basketball," Tar Heels coach Hubert Davis said.

What's different for the 2023 NIT?

For the 2023 edition, the NIT will seed the top 16 teams, with the top four teams in each pod of the bracket. The remaining 16 teams will then be placed in the bracket "geographically where possible."

The first three rounds of the tournament will remain on campus sites, but the semifinal and final will no longer be held in New York City. This year, the NIT final four will be held at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.

Follow Jordan Mendoza on Twitter: @jordan_mendoza5.

NIT-bound Kentucky responds to missing NCAA tournament

Kyle Tucker, USA TODAY Sports

Kentucky is just the fifth defending champion since 1985 to not make the field the next year

The Wildcats are instead the top overall seed in the NIT%2C but will travel to Robert Morris in first round

NCAA committee cited Kentucky%27s weakness playing on the road as a factor in leaving it out

The long roller-coaster ride, after so many sharp climbs and violent dives, finally came to a screeching halt Sunday evening.

Kentucky was left out of the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2009 — the last of the dark days under former coach Billy Gillispie — and only the second time in 22 years. The Wildcats are just the fifth defending national champion to miss tournament.

Their consolation prize: A road trip in the National Invitation Tournament. Despite being the No. 1 overall seed, Kentucky (21-11) did not submit a bid to host its opening game against eighth-seeded Robert Morris (23-10) on Tuesday night because of "limited staff availability to properly host a game at Memorial Coliseum," associate athletics director DeWayne Peevy said.

The Wildcats' normal home, Rupp Arena, is hosting the NCAA tournament this week, and the school's athletics staff is committed to helping with that. Should it advance in the NIT, Kentucky did place bids to host second-round and quarterfinal games at Rupp. First, the team will have to stop a five-game losing streak away from home that was a major reason for the Wildcats' NCAA exclusion.

"If you haven't shown you can play away from your own environment, that's an indicator you're not one of the 37 at-large teams," NCAA selection committee chairman Mike Bobinski said on a teleconference Sunday night. He also noted that Kentucky was among the last few teams cut.

One sliver of good news: This road trip will feel like home for Wildcats coach John Calipari. He grew up in Moon Township, the Pittsburgh suburb where Robert Morris is located, and his grandmother once worked in the school's cafeteria. Calipari went to high school less than two miles from the 3,000-seat arena where the Patriots will host Kentucky in what is sure to be among the biggest events in program history.

"I feel like Rocky," said 32-year-old Robert Morris coach Andrew Toole on ESPNU's NIT selection show.

That's appropriate, considering the Wildcats must be feeling like they were just knocked out.

"I'm really disappointed we didn't make the NCAA tournament," tweeted Calipari, who did not speak to the media after the announcement, "but we are going to use this time to make us better. We had our chances, but I'm not going to stop. It's a great lesson for the future of our program (and) a humbling experience for me as a coach."

It's also a bitter end to a disappointing season that started with such promise. Kentucky opened the year ranked No. 3 despite losing its top six players to the NBA. Most figured it was another plug-and-play year for Calipari, who brought in his fourth straight top-rated recruiting class. But this team lacked last season's veteran nucleus and didn't have a true leader. Nerlens Noel, the nation's top shot-blocker, was the closest thing to it — but he went down with a torn ACL on Feb. 12.

The Wildcats were already an iffy NCAA team with Noel, considering a beating at Notre Dame and home losses to marginal Baylor and Texas A&M teams, and they went 4-4 without him. They lost all four games away from home in that span — by an average of 17.3 points — including a pair to teams with losing records. Friday night's 16-point loss to lowly Vanderbilt in the Southeastern Conference quarterfinals sealed Kentucky's fate.

Those defeats, among Kentucky's seven losses by double digits this season, cancelled out three victories over teams who made the NCAA tournament field: No. 3 seed Florida, No. 9 seed Missouri and No. 12 seed Mississippi. The Wildcats beat the Rebels on the road and toppled the Gators and Tigers after losing Noel. Kentucky went 3-1 against that trio of teams.

That gives the Wildcats, who finished second in the SEC, some beef with the selection committee. Among the final few at-large selections, only Boise State (four) had more wins against top-50 teams in the Ratings Percentage Index than Kentucky's three. La Salle (19-10) had two, while Saint Mary's (26-6) and Middle Tennessee (28-5) had one apiece. The Blue Raiders' selection was somewhat surprising, since their best win was at home against the same Mississippi team Kentucky beat on the road.

But the Wildcats had their chances to take it out of the committee's hands and couldn't. So the program with the most all-time NCAA appearances (52) and victories (111) and second-most titles (eight) won't go dancing.

Kentucky seemed to expect this fate, announcing Saturday night that there would be no interviews with Calipari or the players Sunday. After some time to digest the news, they'll meet with the media Monday. Calipari is out of the NCAA tournament for the first time in eight years, dating back to his Memphis days. He's been to the Sweet 16 or further in each of the past seven seasons, reaching six Elite Eights and three Final Fours, including the last two.

Kentucky joins 1987 Louisville, 1989 Kansas, 2008 Florida and 2010 North Carolina as the only defending NCAA champions to miss the tournament since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985. Now the Wildcats will try to instead claim a consolation crown. Kentucky won the NIT in 1946 and 1976.

Robert Morris is ranked 123rd in the RPI and its best win is against No. 63 Ohio, but the Colonials lost by just two points at Xavier and by five at Arkansas, where the Wildcats fell by 13. If it wins, Kentucky would host the winner between fourth-seeded Providence (17-14) and fifth-seeded Charlotte (21-11) on Sunday or next Monday. There's potential for a quarterfinal Rupp rematch with second-seeded Baylor (18-14), which snapped Kentucky's 55-game home winning streak on Dec. 1.

Kyle Tucker writes for The (Louisville) Courier-Journal

Wisconsin Badgers, left out of NCAA Tournament, accept NIT invite ...

MADISON – As expected, Wisconsin did not land an at-large berth in the 68-team NCAA Tournament field Sunday.

The Badgers (17-14) instead accepted an invitation to the the 32-team National Invitation Tournament field later Sunday.

UW received a No. 2 seeding and is set to host Bradley (25-9) at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. Bradley won the Missouri Valley regular-season title with a 16-4 mark but suffered a 77-51 loss to Drake in the title game of the league tournament.

Eight Big Ten teams made the NCAA field. They were: Purdue, Northwestern, Indiana, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan State, Penn State and Iowa.

UW last missed the NCAA Tournament in 2017-18. The Badgers opened that season having to replace four starters and then lost D’Mitrik Trice and Kobe King to season-ending injuries and finished 7-11 in the league and 15-18 overall.

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Angel Reese rejects Jill Biden explanation for White House invite

LSU women's basketball star Angel Reese said she rejects comments made by First Lady Jill Biden about inviting both the Tigers and Iowa to the White House after LSU's dominant victory over the Hawkeyes in the national championship and also said she would prefer to celebrate the title with the Obamas.

"I don't accept that — I'm not going to lie to you, I don't accept that apology because she said what she said," Reese said during an appearance on the "I Am Athlete" podcast that published Tuesday. "You can't go back on certain things that you say. You felt that they should have came because of 'sportsmanship,' right? (Iowa) can have that spotlight; we'll go to the Obamas. We'll see Michelle. We'll see Barack."

While Biden did not technically apologize via press secretary Vanessa Valdivia for her initial comments, the White House did walk them back Tuesday.

Reese, a sophomore forward, also said LSU declined to have Biden, who was in Houston to watch the game in person, speak to their locker room prior to tipoff.

"We said we didn't want to," Reese said. "I think Joe Biden put somebody else to win the national championship. He didn't even put us on his bracket, getting out of Baton Rouge, so I was like, 'Bet. bet.' I think he said we were going to lose to Michigan (in the second round) or something."

Reese was named the Final Four's most outstanding player after LSU's 102-85 victory Sunday night. Barack Obama served as the 44th President of the United States, with Joe Biden as his Vice President for both terms, from 2009-17.

What else did Angel Reese say about First Lady Jill Biden suggesting to invite Iowa to the White House?

"I just know if the roles were reversed, it wouldn't be the same," Reese said. "If we were to lose, we would not be getting invited to the White House. I remember she made a comment that both teams should be invited because it was about sportsmanship.

"And I'm like, are you saying that because of what I did?" Reese continued, flashing the hand gesture with which she taunted Iowa star Caitlin Clark toward the end of the national championship game. "Stuff like that, it bothers me. Because you are a woman, at the end of the day. White, black, it doesn't matter, you're supposed to be standing behind us before anything, so it's hard to see things like that and not to comment on it. But at the same time, I have the platform right now where I can speak out and a lot of people have had my back through it. I'm proud to be in a situation like this. Nobody is giving her grace right now. Trust me, nobody is giving her grace and that's why she's trying to back track on what she said."

What did First Lady Jill Biden say about a potential Iowa invitation?

While Reese is slightly misquoting Biden, who never used the word "sportsmanship" in her comments about wanting to invite Iowa, the sentiment was largely the same.

"I know we’ll have the champions come to the White House, we always do. So, we hope LSU will come,” Biden said. “But, you know, I’m going to tell Joe I think Iowa should come, too, because they played such a good game.”

On Tuesday, through Valdivia, Biden walked back those comments, saying: "Her comments in Colorado were intended to applaud the historic game and all women athletes" and that "She looks forward to celebrating the LSU Tigers on their championship win at the White House."

Honoring women's basketball champs has been an annual White ...

Thirty-five years ago this month, President Ronald Reagan honored the Southern California women's basketball team at a ceremony in the Indian Treaty Room of the Old Executive Office Building next to the White House.

"There was a time when the only jumping that was done at an athletic contest by women was by the cheerleaders — and there's nothing wrong with that," Reagan told the 1984 NCAA champions. "But you are proving that women can make their mark as well in the field of athletics, out there on the floor of the arena."

Though the Trojans didn't technically visit the White House, their ceremony with Reagan was a historic moment — and the start of a longstanding tradition in women's basketball.

According to USA TODAY Sports research, 31 of the next 32 NCAA women's champions went on to be honored by the president, either individually or as part of a broader ceremony. At least 16 WNBA champions have received White House invitations since the founding of the league in 1997.

Those trends have changed with President Donald Trump in office.

While championship visits have become more sporadic across all sports under Trump, they've become particularly rare for women's teams. When the Baylor women's basketball team is honored at the White House on Monday, it will be the first female team — in any sport — to receive its own championship ceremony during Trump's presidency.

"Why is that?" Dr. Deborah Antoine, the CEO of the Women's Sports Foundation, said in a statement provided to USA TODAY Sports.

"Female athletes, coaches and teams all deserve equal opportunity to play, compete and thrive. And when that all adds up to a national championship, they too should have equal opportunity to be recognized with one of our country's highest honors."

The White House did not reply to an email seeking comment for this story.

Ellen Staurowsky, a professor of sports management at Drexel University, believes the entire idea of visiting the White House has changed under Trump. Multiple teams have not been invited or declined invitations, most recently the Virginia men's basketball team. The Cavaliers announced Friday that they would forgo a visit, just as the president's comments about a 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville were back in the news.

Staurowsky said these once non-partisan celebrations have become inherently political. And for women's teams, she said, that means taking into account some of Trump's past comments about women and the sexual harassment allegations that have been levied against him.

"On one hand, it leaves us with the question: Is it all that surprising that this administration would not invite as many women?" Staurowsky said Saturday. "And then it also presents the dilemma of what women are to make when these kinds of invitations are extended."

The lack of White House visits for female champions under Trump is a departure from nearly 30 years of precedent. According to presidential schedules, speech transcripts and photographs reviewed by USA TODAY Sports, each of the past five presidents — including three Republicans and two Democrats — generally honored women's basketball champions as frequently as men.

Former presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, for example, typically held joint celebrations for the men's and women's NCAA basketball champions. Former president George W. Bush followed suit, while also regularly inviting WNBA champions to visit the White House for the first time.

Former president Barack Obama took it one step further — celebrating every college and professional women's basketball champion individually during his eight-year term. He also held ceremonies for the U.S. women's national soccer team after its World Cup win in 2015 and Sky Blue FC, which won the inaugural league title in Women's Professional Soccer in 2009.

Trump, meanwhile, has hosted female athletes or women's teams at the White House twice since taking office: as part of a celebration of NCAA champions in non-revenue sports in 2017, and at a ceremony honoring Olympians and Paralympians in 2018. But he has yet to even extend an invitation to a WNBA champion, to the chagrin of some of the league's players and coaches.

"It's probably because we're a women's sport and it maybe is not on our president's radar," Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve told The Star Tribune after her team was not invited last year.

In a statement provided to USA TODAY Sports, WNBA chief operating officer Christy Hedgpeth described the situation as a "missed opportunity" for the White House: "WNBA players are world-class athletes and multifaceted women whose accomplishments and interests extend far beyond basketball and serve as a source of inspiration to millions of people."

Baylor declined to make women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey available for an interview ahead of Monday's visit, and spokesperson Kyle Robarts declined to release any additional information about the decision to accept Trump's invitation — including whether players were consulted.

"It's not a political issue for me. It's an honor to go to the White House," Mulkey told The Associated Press this month. "I want everyone to say they went to the White House. Not many people can say that."

Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on Twitter @Tom_Schad.

Bellarmine basketball missing NIT is latest example of NCAA ...

This isn’t about the NCAA Tournament and its 68 teams. It’s more about the 32 who’ll comprise the NIT.

Some of those teams and players selected won’t care a thing about the National Invitation Tournament. They’ll be disappointed. They'll be over this season. They’ll prepare and play poorly, and they’ll lose. They'll still have had that opportunity.

And Bellarmine’s men’s basketball team – champions of the Atlantic Sun Conference – will not.

That bothers me.

It should bother the NCAA, too, though that would require evidence that the governing body in collegiate athletics actually cares about college athletes more than it does money or stubborn adherence to technicalities that don’t make sense.

In only its second season transitioning from NCAA Division II, the small private school in Louisville, Kentucky, – with a roster still comprised mostly of D-II recruits – earned the right to be in the Division I NCAA Tournament. It beat out the rest of the ASUN, Lipscomb included, to win the league's tourney and secure an automatic bid.

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But rules being what they are, Bellarmine (20-13) isn’t eligible for the NCAA Tournament.

The NCAA requires a four-year transition period that prevents universities that are changing divisions from competing for championships. That part, Bellarmine knew in advance. The school signed up for that.

But until this week, the Knights believed the NIT would remain open to them.

Turns out, since the NCAA owns the NIT, it chose to apply the same rules to that event. That means Bellarmine found out in the last couple of days – after winning the ASUN – that it wouldn’t be eligible for the NIT, either.

"It's just unfair to our kids,” Bellarmine coach Scotty Davenport said.

And so the NCAA is once again exposed as a heartless, inefficient organization that lacks the leadership or mobility to respond to unexpected situations as they arise.

According to ESPN, Bellarmine was the first men’s basketball team in 25 seasons to win a conference tournament while not being eligible for the NCAA Tournament.

But the NIT? Who benefits from Bellarmine not being able to play in the NIT?

“They have the power to invite us,” senior guard Juston Betz said. “... We want to be in the NIT, and we think we deserve to be in the NIT.”

In 2021, the women’s basketball team at Cal Baptist played in the NIT while in a transition period to Division I. The women’s NIT isn’t owned by the NCAA.

"If we were a women's program," Betz said, "we would be in a position to be eligible to play."

Bellarmine could still end up in another of the lesser-known postseason basketball tournaments, but for now, its situation is receiving national media attention. Rightfully so.

People can tell when something just isn't right.

I don’t understand the NCAA's four-year rule, but I’m told it was put in place to prevent universities from changing divisions lightly. Additionally, Division II doesn’t have the same guidelines – lower admission standards, things like that – as is in Division I.

"I have five seniors,” Davenport said. “They are going to leave Bellarmine with eight degrees. That's not the intent of this rule.”

“We chose to be here,” said Betz, one of those seniors, “and the transition rule sets up an impulse of transfers to leave. But the student-athletes at Bellarmine chose to be here. We think that if the NCAA was putting student-athletes first then they would not be penalizing us for that.”

The NCAA Tournament – or the NIT – would be better if Bellarmine was a part of it. The Knights are a great, unique story. They are no fluke.

They are a small-time program who over the years developed a surprisingly robust following in basketball-crazy Kentucky. They'd routinely lure thousands into their on-campus arena for Division II games, the result of efforts to build relationships in the community and the fact the Knights played an attractive, organized, high-scoring style.

That has to do with Davenport, a popular and former assistant at the University of Louisville under Denny Crum and Rick Pitino who is a salesman at heart. He knows pretty much everyone in his native city. (And if he doesn’t, he’d be interested in an introduction).

As I was leaving the Louisville Courier-Journal in late 2019 to come to Nashville and join The Tennessean, my phone rang: "How can we get you to stay!?" Davenport exclaimed.

The man could run tomorrow for mayor of Louisville and win.

Davenport used to personally clean the backboards and arrange the chairs on the benches and vacuum the locker room before games in Bellarmine’s old gym. Had to look right. It was about self-respect – and earning respect.

On the court, Davenport once described Bellarmine’s style to me as a full-court press on offense. “The system is not as much the individuals as it is the passing,” he said. “Passing is the biggest lost art in college basketball. Just pick a random game and watch how many people dribble the ball.”

The Knights – routinely among the nation’s leaders in field-goal percentage and other offensive categories – were a powerhouse in D-II. They won a national title in 2011.

Nonetheless, few could have expected them to be so successful so quickly at the Division I level.

I’ve been surprised by it. But not shocked.

I’d seen them play before. That's why I once asked Davenport if he believed his approach could win with a D-I program. "I’m going to go to my grave wondering," he replied. "They will bury me, and I’ll wonder because I’m convinced you can.”

That was in 2018. Davenport has since gotten to find out. He was right.

That revelation has meant more at Bellarmine – and in Louisville, whose beloved Cardinals have been a train wreck of troubles for years now – than it would on almost any campus in America. It is about what’s right with college sports.

The NCAA, once again, is showing itself to be what’s wrong.

Reach Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Gentry_Estes.

LSU women's basketball team will accept White House invite, rep says

The LSU athletic department said the national champion women’s basketball team will accept an invitation to visit the White House, despite Angel Reese saying they wouldn't.

The Tigers defeated Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes, 102-85, on Sunday to win their first NCAA women’s basketball national championship in program history. Following LSU's dominant performance, First Lady Jill Biden suggested inviting both teams to the White House to applaud strides in women's sports before walking back her comments.

Reese, the women’s tournament most Outstanding Player, said she didn't accept Biden's explanation earlier this week, adding that "if the roles were reversed, it wouldn't be the same." Reese added the team would rather "go to the Obamas."

But on Thursday, LSU spokesman Michael Bonnette said the team would accept an invitation from President Joe Biden to visit 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, although he didn't confirm which players would attend. Coach Kim Mulkey previously said she would.

'I DONT ACCEPT THAT': LSU's Angel Reese rejects Jill Biden's White House invite

It's a longstanding tradition for national champions across college and professional sports leagues to visit the sitting president at the White House. However, Jill Biden floated the idea of inviting runner-up Iowa after attending the historic game in Dallas, the highest scoring championship game in women's NCAA history.

"I know we’ll have the champions come to the White House, we always do. So, we hope LSU will come," Biden said. “But, you know, I’m going to tell Joe I think Iowa should come, too, because they played such a good game.”

President Biden only invited the Tigers and the University of Connecticut men's basketball team, but the comments sparked backlash.

During an appearance on the "I Am Athlete" podcast that published Tuesday, Reese said the Tigers wouldn't have been invited if they lost, noting racial undertones.

"And I'm like, are you saying that because of what I did?" Reese continued, flashing the hand gesture with which she taunted Clark toward the end of the national championship game. "Stuff like that, it bothers me. Because you are a woman, at the end of the day. White, black, it doesn't matter, you're supposed to be standing behind us before anything, so it's hard to see things like that and not to comment on it."

Contributing: Lorenzo Reyes, USA TODAY

For NCAA champion Villanova basketball, no White House invitation

The Villanova men's basketball team's only visit to Washington, D.C. over the next few months will be to play Georgetown.

The Wildcats won't be going to the White House to celebrate their second national title in the past three years.

Nearly eight months after cutting down the nets, Villanova has not received an invitation to the traditional champions' ceremony with the president, coach Jay Wright said Thursday during Big East media day.

If one were to come at this point, Wright said, "We probably wouldn’t be able to get everybody together. We’ve lost staff members, we’ve lost players (to the NBA)."

After winning the NCAA tournament in April of 2016, Wright’s Wildcats visited President Barack Obama in late May.

"Two years ago it was the experience of a lifetime for all of us," Wright said. "It’s just a different time and I understand it. So it is what it is.”

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The move continues a trend at all levels of the basketball world during Donald Trump's presidency.

After North Carolina men’s basketball won the 2017 NCAA title, the university announced in September that the team was invited but “couldn’t find a date that worked” and never visited.

The two-time defending NBA champs, the Golden State Warriors, elected to pass up a visit in 2017 and were not invited after repeating last June.

From the WNBA, Trump did not invite the 2017 champ Minnesota Lynx and the 2018 champion Seattle Storm has not been invited after several players indicated they were uninterested in going.

In women’s college basketball, 2017 NCAA champ South Carolina declined an invitation after receiving it in November of that year — once the season already was underway. The 2018 champ, Notre Dame, has not yet visited or indicated that an invitation has been extended.

So Trump is 0-for-8 thus far on American basketball champions.

By contrast, Trump hosted Alabama’s football team in April, four months after the Crimson Tide won the 2018 NCAA title. Last year’s World Series champion, the Houston Astros, visited the White House in March---five months after their triumph.

In early June, the defending Super Bowl champions Philadelphia Eagles had their invitation rescinded by Trump after it became clear that most of the team would not attend the already-planned ceremony.

In announcing the decision to rescind, Trump bashed the Eagles for kneeling during the national anthem — when in fact none of them had kneeled during the regular season or playoffs.