Perhaps you’ve already seen today’s NIT Bracketology. If not, please have it at the ready for reference.
Where Things Stand Entering the Weekend
Not to go full Bubble Watch on you all, but here’s generally where things break down right now regarding the NIT:
Hanging Around – High Side: Xavier, UNC, North Texas, VCU, Wyoming, Wake Forest, Miami, Memphis
These are the eight closest to the field above our heads. These are the eight needing to change things somehow. To be perfectly honest, I have no idea how doable that is for any of them. Some of these guys might be locked in. But one would hope that entering the penultimate pre-NIT weekend of the season, two losses could get you somewhere, and each of these teams could certainly lose two more times. Godspeed, friends.
Bid Thief Land – Loyola, SMU, Notre Dame, Rutgers
Rutgers and Notre Dame project very similarly, so we’re inviting the Scarlet Knights to join the bubble party. Right now, if everything plays out as expected, these four would end up in the NIT by virtue of bid thievery, which in this context is the noblest theft. Jean Valjean stealing to feed his kids? Cool stuff, yeah. Washington winning the Pac-12 Tournament to bump SMU into the NIT? No selfishness there. Only love.
Fairly Safe – Virginia Tech, BYU, Florida, Dayton, Indiana, Chattanooga, Belmont, St. Bonaventure, Mississippi State, Texas A&M, Oregon, Oklahoma
The thick of our field. Each of these teams can’t lose too badly or win too goodly, or they’ll lose their cherished spot in the greatest of all tournaments.
Go Forth, But Tread Lightly – UAB, Saint Louis, Virginia, South Carolina, Colorado
These guys are projecting to land on the right side of the cut line, but it’s perilous territory. For UAB, especially, the road is riddled with potentially devastating losses. For some, that is a good thing. Not for those treading lightly.
One Loss Away – Iona, South Dakota State, Towson, New Mexico State, Toledo, Many Others
There are twenty potential automatic bids out there. We’re currently expecting to get twelve. The five teams named here would each be expected to be fairly competitive within the NIT. They’re our golden geese, in a way. (Is that a phrase? And does it mean anything?)
Hanging Around – Low Side: Missouri State, Santa Clara, St. John’s, Florida State, Richmond, UNLV, UCF, Washington State, Wichita State, Drake, Utah State, Fresno State, Vanderbilt
This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it’s some of the teams who could make the cut with a little run, some bubble expansion via unfulfilled auto bids or ungodly quantities of bid thieves, etc. They’re on our radar. We’re betting on all their games to make sure we know what’s going on in them.
Today and ToNITe
All of this, of course, brings us to this weekend. Longwood and Northern Iowa already each missed a chance to lock down an automatic bid. Loyola is playing like they have no intention of getting booted off the bubble (timestamp: four minutes into that game’s second half). No other automatic bids are likely in play (there’s a scenario where SEMO beats Murray State by a million and puts the Racers on the bubble, but it’s a narrow scenario), which actually makes it a fairly normal Friday night. We’ll watch to see if Toledo can avoid disaster against Bowling Green. We’ll watch Missouri State try to inch that much closer with a take-care-of-business game against Valparaiso. We’ll watch BYU try to seal the deal against Loyola Marymount, and Belmont try to do the same against Morehead State, and Utah State try to keep their faint wisps of hope alive over in San José. We will, of course, watch the Game of the NITe (Richmond @ St. Bonaventure, 7:00 PM EST, ESPN2). Then, it’s onto the weekend weekend, and all the madness that entails.
At this point, we’re guessing we’ll be doing notes every day between now and Selection Sunday, so we won’t get too graphic here, but know that Davidson does play Dayton tomorrow around noontime on USA Network.
Joe Kelly Is Taking Saving Baseball Seriously
We talked recently about how Joe Kelly’s trying to save baseball with his brand, Baseball Isn’t Boring. Today, our hero took things a step further, publishing an op-ed (!!) in the Los Angeles Times (!!!) asking folks not to turn their back on the sport. We’d never turn our back on you, Joe. Never ever ever.
Buckethat tip to our brother for alerting us to this op-ed.
Burnley: Plays Chelsea
Burnley plays Chelsea tomorrow morning. It’s on USA Network (what a day for USA Network). The lads are big enough underdogs that it’s just about a free play, but a point would still be really nice, and three would be enormous. In scoreboard-watching, Everton’s at Tottenham, Newcastle hosts Brighton, Leeds visits Leicester, Norwich and Brentford play in Norwich, and Watford welcomes Arsenal to…Watford’s in London, right? So their side of London, I guess. Unless Watford isn’t in London in which case who the heck knows where they’ll be. Big day for the Burnleys. I guess the Watford and Everton matches are Sunday and Monday, actually. So big weekend for the Burnleys.
NASCAR: In Las Vegas
Trucks tonight, Xfinity tomorrow, Cup Series Sunday. Intermediate track, but for some reason I don’t think of it as being all that boring. The new car’s supposed to fix that anyway, though, so guess it doesn’t really matter.
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See you…probably tomorrow morning. That’s what it’s looking like right now.
