No whining allowed, it’s win or be quiet for coaches

Henry Ford once told us, “You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.”

Maybe… Henry Ford once told us, “You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.”

Maybe he should’ve been an Associated Press Top 25 Poll voter — see grossly unproven Ohio State ranked fourth. Or maybe he should’ve been kept in the locker rooms of high-major conference teams.

After a fantastic week of competitive college basketball in New York at the Mecca, the epicenter of basketball, Madison Square Garden, whiny, high-major powerhouses are complaining.

Why? Because Notre Dame had to play Butler in Indianapolis and Baylor had to play two games in Spokane, Wash. They didn’t even get to Madison Square.

In other words, major conference schools are upset that they don’t get two games at home to start the famous Preseason NIT, which is now called the NIT Season Tip-Off. According to ESPN’s Andy Katz, some teams are ready to pull out of the preeminent preseason non-conference tournament in the future if the format doesn’t change.

Prior to 2006, the tournament gave two home games to four big-name programs. In other words, if Pitt played in the tournament, it would host two games at the Petersen Events Center — not some regional site like Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland or the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia.

But the tournament brass wanted to add two more high-major programs to their preseason marathon. They decided to go with one team from each of the six big-time conferences — the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC and Pac-10 — and four would host regional contests at a neutral site.

This year, Gonzaga, North Carolina, Indiana and Tennessee were regional hosts. Gonzaga played at its second home in Spokane, Wash., North Carolina competed in Charlotte, S.C., Indiana hosted games in Indianapolis and Tennessee traveled to Nashville, Tenn.

As a result, Baylor — the Big 12 representative — and Notre Dame — the Big East rep — had to travel. While Baylor trekked all the way to Spokane, Notre Dame bussed nearly three hours to Indianapolis.

Oh no, not three hours! Not a whole bus ride! The Fighting Irish lost the first night in Indianapolis. Butler trumped them, 71-69.

Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey said, “Basically, we had a road game. We had the [Indiana] fans cheering for Butler, too.”

Oh gosh, not adversity! Not in November!

It’s not that your team couldn’t get the job done against a lesser opponent or you didn’t do a good coaching job, is it, Mike?

And now programs like Notre Dame are complaining about future obligations in the tournament, saying they don’t want to travel elsewhere to play at neutral sites. Kansas, the preseason consensus No. 3 team in the country, already pulled out of the 2007 NIT Season Tip-Off because it didn’t want to play at a neutral court.

Did you see Kansas beat Florida Saturday night? The mid- and low-major teams on next year’s tournament docket are St. Joseph’s, Manhattan, Wisconsin-Green Bay, UTEP and Fresno State — is really afraid of losing to one of these teams? I have a hard time believing that any of those teams could beat the Jayhawks anywhere in the nation, at any point on the schedule, even if most of their players will leave for the NBA after this season.

There are those out there wondering if I completely missed Gonzaga beating North Carolina. To them, I ask — how many games has Gonzaga won since 1999, when head coach Mark Few took over?

Give up? Before its victory over the Tar Heels Wednesday night, Gonzaga had compiled 192 wins since 1999, that’s 24 wins per season, each of which included a trip to the NCAA Tournament. The Bulldogs also happened to be No. 23 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches’ Poll.

But the key to this “upset” is that North Carolina and Gonzaga won the games at their respective regional sites. They got to New York City, to the semifinals and got their four games.

Notre Dame didn’t. Should the Fighting Irish set an example of how not to play in the NIT Season Tip-Off, or be the team that starts the annual complaining of tournament participants from big-name conferences that feel slighted by the tournament format?

If you can’t beat Butler in Indianapolis, three hours from your campus, you don’t deserve to play North Carolina or Gonzaga in New York. And if you’re Kelvin Sampson and Indiana, and you can’t beat Butler in the hotbed of your school’s fan base, then you might have bigger fish to fry once the Big Ten season rolls around.

You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do, but you certainly can with the complaining that spews from your whiny mouth. Win, or be quiet.