We were either the second or fourth least experienced team of over 300 D-1 teams depending on the source. This notion that we couldn't improve with potentially an extra three weeks and 4-6 games is absurd. You can't look for correlation in something like this generally. A team full of juniors and seniors that loses a half-dozen impact players after the season clearly won't get the same benefit as a team like SJU whose entire roster is eligible to play at least one more season.
Our guys haven't even figured out team defense yet. That can only be learned through experience and by making mistakes. The NCAA only allows teams to go on foreign tours one year out of like four or five. Why? Because that extra practice and competion gives teams an advantage (and smaller conference teams could never compete with the tours/competition the big boys could set up).
That win or go home atmosphere turns boys into men. Any experience handling that pressure from the travel and meals to the hotels to the game is good IMO. You bet your ass SouthCarolina benefitted from last year's NIT practice and games.
I'm fine with most of this argument but pointing to South Carolina as an example of benefitting from last year's NIT is illogical. They played 2 games. They killed High Point and then got killed by Georgia Tech. The NIT didn't seem to help any of the NIT final 4 teams last year as none of them made the NCAA Tournament this year. And that's the NIT, which obviously we wouldn't reject an invite to, not the CBI.
I don't think it's illogical at all. Those two games were win or go home. You can't duplicate that pressure November tnrough February. That got them two extra weeks of practice and put the bad taste of having their season "ended" twice in their mouths which gives competitors a chip on their shoulder. Guys who haven't been around a team in that atmosphere underestimate how important it is to experience the little details of class, travel, practice, sleep, and staying focused and loose through it all is to success. That experience is a big reason why programs like Xavier and Butler play so focused while many more talented teams can't get past the nerves.
Now, I'm not saying to caused a jump from NIT to the Elite Eight, but I'm sure it helped and I know it didn't hurt.
The reason why programs like Xavier and Butler continues to succeed, IMO, is based on the winning culture that has enveloped both programs.
The Gamecocks advancing to the second round in last season's NIT didn't hurt at all, but we can't say for certain it helped, as other team's (a few who even went further than South Carolina) in last season's NIT either didn't do diddly this season or went back to the NIT.
Again, that goes back to who they lost and who they returned. If you lose four seniors and a transfer from your 8-9 man rotation, a postseason trip won't have the same effect as it would with a team like us who started four first year players and a second year player.
BYU, Georgia Tech and George Washington returned enough talent from last season's NIT, respectively, to where they could've catapulted to the NCAA's, this season. Yes, Georgia Tech has a new coach and they're still playing in the NIT, but as I stated, their success in the NIT last season didn't take 'em to the NCAA Tournament in '17.
It's late, and I could be forgetting others. I also know Indiana's Sweet 16 run didn't propel 'em at all this season. They had enough ammo to return to the NCAA Tournament (even with the loss of Yogi Ferrell.
So, again, there isn't any proof the Gamecocks extra two games in last season's NIT absolutely has anything to do with this season's NCAA Tournament run. I totally agree, it didn't hurt 'em. But, you can't say
for sure it has helped 'em.