Cade Cunningham is expected by many to be the first overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. He’s been described as a…well, I’m not looking up quotes, but I bet people have said all sorts of nice things about him. You can imagine the things.
All of this means that Cunningham’s probably only going to get one year in college. One shot at the NIT. One chance at the most glorious of glories our earthly time entails.
And he might be blowing it.
Already projected to land on the wrong side of the bubble, Oklahoma State went down to Lubbock yesterday and won. Never mind that it took the Pokes overtime to do it. They won the game. And that’s not something you can do on the road against top-20 competition if you want to make the NIT. Unless you’re planning on playing some really terrible basketball on a few nights the rest of the way.
We’ll see if Mike Boynton can get that ship righted, but for now, count the Cowboys out. They aren’t earning it.
Other notes of note:
- In other Big 12 action, Oklahoma beat West Virginia at home and TCU bested Kansas State on the road. It’s not a terrible win for the Sooners (you can get away with beating pretty much anyone in January, so long as it’s at home), but it doesn’t seem like it helps their cause, at least for the time being. For the Horned Frogs, it was important to get out of Manhattan without losing. Because Jamie Dixon’s team’s been on Disintegration Watch™.
- Arkansas’s been in a weird place all season, buzzing around us but not really landing. Their loss to Mizzou yesterday, in Fayetteville, was probably worse than it looks right now. Which is good for their chances of dancing with us come March. Elsewhere in the SEC, Kentucky got out of Starkville with a crucial bubble win, and Alabama really messed things up for themselves by winning in Knoxville.
- St. Bonaventure took down Richmond yesterday in Richmond. We’ve been one step ahead of the narrative on Richmond all year, so let’s do that again: There’s reason to doubt Richmond will even make the NIT. I’d guess they’ll still be in our bracketology come Tuesday, but this is a team with some issues. Namely, being good enough at basketball to play in the NIT.
- Tulsa got a big bubble win in Cincinnati, while their neighbors to the north, Wichita State, went to Oxford and grabbed a result that changed both their course and that of their hosts (by which we mean, both now loom much larger in the NIT picture than was previously true). We could’ve included this latter result in the SEC bullet, but Wichita State’s more of a basketball thing than Mississippi. They get priority until Marshall Henderson sneaks into the number 24 jersey and tries to convince us he’s Jarkel Joiner (we’re in if you are, Marshall).
- Speaking of Marshalls, the Thundering Herd and Western Kentucky washed out Friday’s results, with the former avenging their loss at Louisiana Tech and the latter avenging their win at Charlotte. Which I guess isn’t really avenging. Big Red wanted a W. But, you know, they both went 1-1 this weekend, so things are even there. That’s all we’re trying to say.
- Seton Hawk’s Pro Skater did not come back down the pipe against Butler. They didn’t even do a trick. We are officially concerned about those Pirates. But we’ve been concerned before. Providence’s close loss to Creighton, at home, keeps the Friars fairly locked in place.
- Michigan State won by seven at Nebraska, which is the exact amount by which an NIT contender should win at Nebraska. Tom Izzo means business.
- Sun Belt favorite Georgia State got out of Conway with a win, salvaging a split from the two-game set with Coastal Carolina. Still weird Ron Hunter’s not there.
- Color us intrigued by Colorado State, who managed a huge victory in San Diego yesterday. We’re used to the Mountain West getting a bit more NIT hype than it deserves (long story about why that is, but it involves the order of “NIT Bracketology” search results on Google, and to fix this, you should go google “NIT Bracketology” right now and click on our link and only our link). This year, it might deserve it. Utah State’s hanging around the picture. Boise State (who stopped bullying displaced teams yesterday and nearly got a terrible loss because of it) is in the heart of things. Now, Colorado State climbs into the bubble race, and San Diego State becomes a bit intriguing. Talk about mountains (I don’t know what I meant by that I’m sorry).
- Liberty bounced back to beat Lipscomb, regaining a firm hold on Atlantic Sun favoritehood.
- It was a monumental day for the HoLo’s automatic bid streak, with Cleveland State finishing a road sweep of IUPUI and Wright State failing to do the same against Oakland. The Vikings (that’s Cleveland State) now have a one-game lead on the Raiders (that’s Wright State), and the final projection is narrowing. Start clearing your calendars for the weekend after next. Could be a massive two games in Dayton. A new twist on the All Eyes on Nutter motif. Not that you’ll be able to watch. I doubt they put this on TV. But still…clear your calendars. The HoLo auto-bid streak is at stake!
- Vermont lost again, and I think we can say the Catamounts are officially in trouble in the A-East, if we weren’t saying that already. For those wondering, we spend this much time focusing on the automatic bids for a few reasons: One is that they impact how many at-large spots are available, which is relevant to fans of struggling major-conference teams, who provide us with a great deal of our clicks. Another is that because the at-large window is so small, it’s often harder to be confident in a team getting an at-large bid than an automatic bid. So we pay attention to the teams we’re more confident we’ll get. There are other reasons, I’m sure (inertia, probably), but I’m not calling many of those to mind right now.
- Today on the hardwood, SMU’s got a visit from Houston they probably don’t want to win. It’s not going to be disastrous or anything (unless they blow Houston out, which would be pretty bad), but SMU could stand to lower their profile more than they could stand to raise it. Unless they’re looking for style points.
- Northwestern visits Michigan, and we find ourselves again at risk of losing our Wildcats. Well, these Wildcats. There are so many damn Wildcats. But we’ve covered that before. The message here is: Stay with us, Chris Collins. Please.
- The Josh Pastner train keeps rolling, with Wake Forest coming to Atlanta. Can the Yellow Jackets crack Tuesday’s projected field?
- Finally, a Gator Bowl recap: Kentucky won. Which could get us humming on figuring out if a school’s ever won the football NIT and the basketball NIT in the same year. Put a pin on that.
