Wyoming accepts bid to play in NIT, slated to face Wichita State

In a time where countless decisions are viewed through the eyes of money and efficiency, Sundance Wicks and the Wyoming Cowboys elected to buck that trend.

As more and more college basketball programs choose to decline invitations from non-NCAA Tournament postseason events, it has diminished the aura they provide.

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But not for Wicks.

Not for Wyoming.

After the field was announced for the NCAA Tournament on Sunday evening, the National Invitation Tournament, or NIT, began contacting schools to extend invites to the second-biggest postseason tournament the sport has long had for decades.

San Diego State declined the opportunity.

Boise State – the same.

This paved the way for Wyoming to participate beyond the Mountain West conference tournament for the first time since 2022, their last March Madness appearance.

When asked about why they accepted, Sundance Wicks gave a detailed and heartfelt explanation: “We will always accept an invitation to the National Invitation Tournament. If we don’t ever get an NCAA automatic qualifier bid or an at-large bid in March Madness, we’ll always accept this, because it is our civic duty as basketball coaches of basketball players to normalize playing basketball as long as you can, because that’s what we get paid to do nowadays. This is our job.”

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He further added, “My wife can’t just wake up someday and be like, ‘You know what? I’m gonna opt out of teaching today.‘ This is what we need to normalize, and this (NIT) field is outstanding. It is like Mid-Major Madness, and I love it. Kudos to Auburn for accepting the bid. That’s outstanding.”

A final, encapsulating point by Wicks, “We are college basketball coaches. We have a great profession, and we have college basketball players who get paid to play basketball now. We need to normalize playing postseason basketball.”

In a world so focused on “I”, Wyoming prioritizes “we.”

With this, Wyoming will travel to Kansas and take on the Wichita State…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/wyoming-accepts-bid-play-nit-231948910.html

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Publish date : 2026-03-16 23:19:00

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