Regarding a potential NIT bid: Be nice, always be nice, and politely decline.
You’re a good poster, but I very much disagree with this. We haven’t played in March consistently for over a decade. If it takes the NIT and some pride swallowing to help get us back on track, so be it.
Our OOC schedule was super weak. However, I remember us struggling to beat some of those teams - coming from behind to beat VMI... Beating another crappy team in OT... I think the weak schedule was probably better for us this year - it gave us time to gel and gave us confidence. If we had played a strong schedule I think we would have gotten blown out by any good teams, which probably would have hurt our growth and team cohesion.
On the other hand, the committee seems to prefer teams that play better teams - even if you lose them... Who knows?
I’ve been a Wake Forest fan long enough that I’m not often surprised by opinions of our fan base about our sports teams, but I am surprised by the number of people who think Wake is too good for the NIT and the bid should be declined. That’s fucking nuts. Do they know anything about Wake basketball history?
Dayton had losses to UMass Lowell, Lipscomb, and Austin Peay, and they were officially the first team out of the tournament. Pretty clear that losses, even abominable losses, don’t matter anymore. Catch lightning in a bottle with a high profile upset or two* and punch your ticket.
*Extra credit if you are in the Big Ten!
So the lesson is to schedule tougher games to give your team more of a chance to pull off that high profile upset. That's a better deal for fans. It's better to get 19 wins against a tough schedule than 23 wins against a weak schedule.