First, a note from Joe Stunardi:
Hey guys. Sorry there’s no NIT Bubble Watch yet. That’s my fault, and not NIT Stu’s fault, and fans of NIT Bubble Watch should stop sending NIT Stu all those messages threatening to watch the NCAA Tournament. It’s always been our position that a proper NIT Bubble Watch needs proper NIT probabilities, and we’re still working on those for this year. We keep thinking we’ve got the finish line in sight, and we keep coming up short. New ETA is Friday.
Wow, thanks Joe. That’s helpful. Thankfully, we do have our NIT Bracketology to peruse, and HOLY SHIT FIVE OF THE LAST TEN CHAMPIONS ARE IN THE SAME REGION.
Texas vs. Minnesota. North Texas vs. Penn State. TCU awaiting the UNT/PSU winner. Has an NIT region ever been as laden with blue-bloods as this potential group of eight? Relatedly: What a few years it’s been for the state of Texas. I know that a lot of people want to give me credit for moving to Austin and sparking this recent NIT run. But I moved here in January 2019. TCU won their title in 2017. This isn’t all me.
Now, this is only a projection, and we have twenty whole days to go before we get to Selection Sunday. But if the future is left unchanged…I’m sorry. I shouldn’t get you all this excited on a Monday afternoon.
What happened over the weekend:
Moving Out: Oklahoma, Arkansas
Tough weekend for the SEC as a basketball league. Not only did its seventh-place team lose to Oklahoma (yikes!), but Oklahoma lost its NIT position (yikes!!). Just across the state line, Arkansas fell into a similar trap, beating Missouri. John Calipari knows as well as anyone how hard it is to win an NIT title. Knowing it’s difficult doesn’t make it any easier.
Moving In: Texas, Northwestern
Hell yeah! Hook ‘em!
In the finest moment of the Rodney Terry era (so far), Texas went on the road to South Carolina and came away a 15-point loser, giving the Gamecocks their first SEC win of the year. That’s how you make a statement.
How did Northwestern get back in here? Well, first they beat the shit out of Ohio State last Thursday. That made people say, “No! No, Northwestern! No!” People were worried Northwestern was going to doom itself to the College Basketball Crown! But Northwestern had bigger plans…
By beating Ohio State, Northwestern helped push the Buckeyes out of the projected NCAA T*urnament field, and into—even worse—the Crown, a process the Buckeyes hastened yesterday by losing to UCLA. This pushed Northwestern out of a Crown slot themselves and into the prospective NIT field, which is kind of like getting out of a commitment to clean Danny DeVito’s grundle and onto a dating show where the eligible woman (or man!) is your crush from your freshman year of college. Good for Northwestern. Nice to see the nerds get one.
What to Watch This Week
Well, it’s a big list, so we won’t spring the whole thing on you right now. Here’s what’s happening toNITe, where the ASUN title race shares top billing with UNC playing Florida State in Tallahassee. Imagine reading that sentence to Dean Smith.
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