Love the NIT. Touch the NIT. Trust no one who declines a spot in that shopworn event.

Love the NIT. Touch the NIT.

Iowa will. Ohio State will. So will Minnesota, if invited.

The NCAA basketball tournament isn’t real life. It’s for the heads of the class, the biggest winners, the minority, the elite.

The NIT is more like the existence most of us know. We’ve had some successes, some failures, and overall we’re just trying to survive without drawing too much attention to ourselves.

How galling, then, for Indiana, Memphis, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Pittsburgh and St. John’s to tell the world they can’t find the time to participate in the 2024 NIT, which will have its pairings, seedings and sites announced tonight at 8:30. That’s 9:30, Eastern time, on ESPN2.

Reading between the lines, Pitino is going to start his 2024 chomp into the NCAA transfer portal. It officially opens for college basketball Monday.

Indiana is doing the same. Hoosiers Coach Mike Woodson, who barely kept his job, basically says he needs to get players instead of worrying about games that aren’t in the NCAA tournament.

That’s telling the world Indiana men’s basketball is in deep doo-doo. The Hoosiers would be better served fighting through the slog of the NIT and realizing where it never wants to be again.

Of course, maybe Indiana wouldn’t have even received an invitation.

Ole Miss is pulling the same antic, with coach Chris Beard offering this rationale:

"Timing is everything, and the timing is not right for our team to continue the season in any of these tournaments. We have some guys dealing with some personal things off the court … Jamarion Sharp's mother is in critical care. He did an amazing job the last couple weeks of the season with the pressure and everything he had going on with his family off the court. I wanted to personally thank Sharp for his commitment to the team.

“We have some guys academically that are working toward graduation. Timing right now just doesn't put us in a situation where we think it's the best thing to try and play in one of those tournaments. Nothing but respect for all the tournaments, including the NIT.”

That’s all understandable and relatable except ... the Rebels would have gone ahead and kept playing had they made the NCAA tourney.

Memphis is 22-10, but won’t make the NCAA’s Field of 68. So it’s pulling the plug on the postseason, too.

“Zero,” Tigers Coach Penny Hardaway said when asked about the chances of his team playing in the NIT. “No sir. I’m not accepting any invitations.

“That’s the decision — I’m just making it right now. I’ll talk to the administration, but I’m not looking to play any more NIT games, man. I’m sorry. I’m not disrespecting the NIT. It’s just, it’s been a tough season already.”

It’s been a tough season already? That’s why everyone goes to the NIT. Because it’s been a tough season. You accept your lot in life. So go to the NIT and win five games instead of curling in the fetal position.

Pittsburgh?

“I am incredibly proud of the performance, development, and fight of our team,” Pitt coach Jeff Capel said in a statement. “We ultimately fell short of our goal of reaching the NCAA tournament, despite ranking favorably in the computers, performing well in conference play with a fourth-place finish and an ACC tournament semifinal appearance, and playing our best basketball over the last eight weeks of the season.

“We made the decision to decline an NIT invitation as a team and with the support of our university leadership. It was a difficult choice, but ultimately what is best for our student-athletes.”

So the ACC, Big Ten, Big East and SEC all have teams who bailed. Sad.

No, the NIT isn’t a glamorous tournament. It hasn’t been for a half-century. They don’t even hold the semifinals and final in New York’s Madison Square Garden anymore. This year they’re at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. It’s an 86-year-old event in a 96-year-old arena.

Why, it’s ageism to decline an NIT berth.

Of course, it’s more than a little funny that the NCAA changed the NIT’s selection rules to add more major-conference teams, leaving out regular-season champions from mid-majors that would appreciate being there.

The funny part is those big-school teams are the only ones that tell the NIT “No, thanks.” You wouldn’t see a High Point or Quinnipiac decline.

Iowa is accepting its invitation tonight. The Hawkeyes will play Bradley or Butler or some other also-ran in a couple of days before a small gathering of fans. Because they should. If everyone lived by “Always do what you should,” what a wonderful world this would be.

Love the NIT. Touch the NIT.