Well, well, well. If it isn’t another weekend in NIT season. Full viewing schedule below, after we eat our vegetables (talk about Burnley and the Senators). Also, got a good Eric Musselman take you can probably guess the nature of, but I’m saving that for Monday because I am behind on the ol’ Stuber Eats earnings for the month.
Oregon’s Statement
Oregon (not in the field) wasn’t in the field of our NIT Bracketology on Wednesday morning, but with last night’s win at UCLA, the Ducks will almost certainly be in the mix whenever we update it next (unless we take a really long time to update it, which is definitely possible). Sometimes it feels like Dana Altman is trying to land on the bubble. Just to scare people.
In other NIT-centric action last night, Stanford (5 – all seedings in here are from our Wednesday afternoon projection, so they aren’t the most current things in the world) beat Wazzu (6) in that game in Pullman, which did finally start and at one point featured a 23-0 Stanford run and at another point made me say, “Did Stanford create a flawed Covid test which delayed results and then convince Washington State to use it to throw the Cougs off their game?”
You can’t prove they didn’t.
In other other NIT-centric action last night…no, nothing else, really. Slow NITe.
Stop Me If You’ve Burnleyed This Before
Burnley’s match against Leicester City is canceled, obviously, all EPL games involving Burnley are canceled these days. The reason for it, though, is seemingly Burnley? And might be because Chris Wood’s gone, leaving them with fewer first-team players? Chess not checkers. Gotta delay as many games as possible until Cornet gets back from Cameroon.
What a Sens-ing
The Senators returned from their hiatus by beating Brady Tkachuk’s brother in Calgary 4-1. The game was never really close. Matt Murray had an awesome night in the net, Connor Brown scored two points through a broken jaw (which happened in warmups when a Thomas Chabot shot ricocheted off the pipe and hit Brown in the face, and yes, Brown will now be out a while), just the best of vibes. The fellas are scheduled to play the Oilers tomorrow night.
Weekend Viewing Schedule
Alright, what you came here for.
Tonight
We begin at the time of beginnings, which in this case is 6:30 PM Texas Time (Texas is on Central Time, for those of you who didn’t have placemat maps of the United States as kids because your parents thought you couldn’t handle them). We could begin at 6:00 PM, but I’m trying not to think too much about the Rick Pitino thing. I really think he might try to get some revenge.
At 6:30, VCU (2)/St. Bonaventure (fourth team out, low side) tips in the Game of the NITe. It’s in Olean. Broadcast on ESPN2. Great vibe. No other must-watch action tonight (read: I forgot to bet on the other games, which is what I do to keep myself paying attention when I’m sleepy), but Davidson (tenth team out, high side) does go to Richmond (low but believable) and Fresno State (4) visits UNLV (low and not believable).
Tomorrow
Lot of fun tomorrow, with our beloved Shaka Smart starting the day for us at 11:00 AM. Marquette isn’t in the NIT projection right now, but we’re just happy our guy is making Texas look silly, and it’s a no-lose for them, because either they win and we get to hype Shaka Smart or they lose and they inch closer to the NIT. Chess not checkers.
After that’s done, it’s time to watch Arkansas (ninth team out, low side, yes, really) call Baton Rouge. This will be on ESPN2. Probably no big impact on the NIT, but we want to hone our Musselman take. It’s a big take. Might cause a ripple or two if we tweet it at enough Little Rock radio hosts.
At 3:00, regardless of whether or not Arkansas/LSU is over, we will all take a thirty-minute break and say what it is we’re thankful for. Then, we’ll watch the opening segments of Wake Forest (fifth team out, high side) playing Virginia (5) on ESPN+ before turning to also ESPN+ for the Game of the NITe of the Weekend: Murray State (3) at Belmont (too high, but plenty of opportunity). There’s a decent chance the OVC regular season champion ends up in the NIT, and this is one of the two biggest games of the OVC regular season (there are only two games that matter in this league, traditionally speaking). Also, the OVC’s going away kind of soon, by which I mean Belmont and Murray State are leaving. I forget where they’re going. Missouri Valley for Belmont? Oh, both to the Missouri Valley. That’s cool. Well, not the end of this rivalry but it’ll definitely change its nature to not be only two schools in their league with basketball programs.
This puts us at about 6:00 PM, at which point we’ll have to ask each other what we want to order for dinner, then laugh and each drink a half a gallon of whole milk from the fridge. At 6:01, we’ll click into ACC Network for the second half of Notre Dame (5)/Virginia Tech (1). Short break after that (one hour) to use the bathroom, then it’s Wyoming (4)/Utah State (5)’s gamecast (doesn’t appear to be televised so we will actually watch the Senators if they play, and I assume that would be on ESPN+) before the nightcap, BYU/San Francisco on CBSSN (neither is that close but we’re still calling San Francisco the NIT favorite to keep us from having to think of another team that exists).
Sunday
Sunday, we’re getting up early (not early) to see if we know anyone with fuboTV, which is where I think the Ivory Coast’s 10:00 AM game against Sierra Leone is being broadcast. Go Cornet, Go Burnley. When that’s over, it’s time for Cincinnati (14th team out, low side) against Wichita State (5th team out, low side) on ESPN, and then at 3:30 we’ll turn on FOX for Georgetown/St. John’s but only but only because we’re suckers for nostalgia.
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