No NIT games today, no NIT games yesterday, this is the last time we’ll be able to say this until next Friday, so rest while you can. While we have you, though, a few developments and a few things we’ve missed:
We’re Going to Denton!
Well, I am. I’ll be at North Texas on Sunday for the Mean Green game against Sam Houston, accepting the gracious invite from the grittiest music school in the country. This does mean I’m not going to be especially tuned in to the other five Sunday games, but when you have an opportunity to witness the biggest basketball game to ever take place on Texas soil, you take it (Texas played TCU in the 2019 Final Four, so that was in New York, and aside from that I can’t find another meeting between Texas schools in the second round or later since the tournament moved its early rounds to campus sites). We’ll make sure the other five are still covered. We’ll figure out how I can listen while driving.
Denton, I am thrilled to visit you for more than just a late-night Waffle House dinner. This is going to be a big day for us.
Princeton Didn’t Make the NIT
Princeton was not good enough to make the NIT. This is factual. They didn’t win the Ivy League in the regular season, and that meant they would not have been invited to the NIT in any scenario. The NCA* *********t? Sure, they’d take ‘em. A 68-team tournament will take just about anybody. Not the NIT, though.
More Morehead
One thing I didn’t see until too late yesterday, one thing we somehow completely forgot to mention in yesterday’s post:
The thing we forgot to mention was the ass slaps. We forgot to mention the ass slaps.
You can’t blame Preston Spradlin for this. I mean, you can, why in the hell would you slap a stranger’s ass, but the point is that Preston Spradlin probably didn’t realize who he was dealing with. Coaches don’t have time to watch that many games aside from film study, and per KenPom, Ted “TV Teddy” Valentine hasn’t reffed a Morehead State game since 2015 at the absolute latest, and possibly not ever. Spradlin may have encountered Valentine back when Spradlin was in the Kentucky program, ten years ago, but there’s a real chance the man did not realize that he was about to slap the ass of a man named for his ability to grab the camera, and a man who does not lose confrontations.
The other thing is that Morehead State advertised a welcome-back celebration for the team yesterday when the bus returned from South Carolina. It was going to be downtown. I haven’t seen any clips from it, but if you have them please share.
**
Alright, those are the only things I think we needed to cover today. Previews of tomorrow’s games will be up sometime tomorrow. Probably early. The games are early.
