Alright, alright, I’m awake. Come on, guys. Games don’t start until six down here.
Last NITe
What a first NITe it was. The headlines:
Grin and Bear It: Missouri State Goes Down in Norman
After a drag race of a first half, the Sooners pulled it together on the defensive end and sent Missouri State packing. The favorites move on.
Beam Them Up, Scotty: Vanderbilt, Onward
Winning a championship and not getting the credit you think you deserve? Nothing new for the Pippen family, where Scottie’s son Scotty didn’t really lead Vanderbilt to victory over Belmont, but did play well. Sorry, Jordan Wright, but you choose to play with Scotty Pippen. Keep scoring 24 a game and you’ll get your due. What’s that you say? You scored 27 against Kentucky and we didn’t mention you? Well, that’s not 24, Jordan.
VC-Through: Rams Advance to Second Round
VCU made shots last night at rates we haven’t seen from them all year, provoking a necessary question of whether this was their plan all along. Did anyone else watch I Love Money on VH1 back in the day? This feels like the final episode of the second season, when It told the cameras he’d been pretending to be physically inept all along so no one would see him as a threat, and that now he was going to dominate the championship obstacle course. The way that ended, if I’m remembering this all correctly, was that It was immediately out of breath during the challenge and lost badly. Your move, VCU.
Green Lean? Accusations of Bias Plague North Texas’s Escape
There were some, uh, questionable calls at the end of North Texas vs. Texas State. I will confess to not having seen the whole game (I only have so many eyes), but, uh…some weird ones there. That said, Texas State had a seven-point lead with a minute on the clock. So, you know, at some point, yada yada…
Steele Yourself: Xavier Coach Out After Big First Round Win
Xavier and Travis Steele are no longer an item despite Xavier pulling it out at home yesterday evening against regional rival Cleveland State. This game ended with unnecessary free throws because the clock operator had accidentally (I assume) stopped the clock and the refs, rather than just calling the game over (which it would have been, had the clock not been accidentally stopped), put a few tenths back on. It was like when you’re up two scores late in Madden but you punt on first down to keep your buddy alive, so you can basically beat him again. The refs just couldn’t let Cleveland State go home, and they couldn’t let Travis Steele leave either.
Where There’s a Williams…: Texas A&M Coach Takes to the (Spread)sheets
Buzz Williams’s Texas A&M Aggies took a while to put away Alcorn State, but you can forgive the guy if his game preparation was lacking. He showed up to his press conference with seven pages of documents detailing why he thought his team should have been selected for the NCA* *********t, and while it wasn’t exactly that much writing (let’s not give the guy too much credit here, some of us write 4,500-word previews of the NIT), seven is a high number of pages.
Personally, I’m impressed. It’s not often that you’d see a coach feel he was unfairly invited to the NIT and then go to the trouble of highlighting who should have gotten that invitation instead, and why. Classy move from the king of College Station.
Quack Cocaine: Oregon Downs Utah State
Oregon’s offense showed some life in Logan, down two starters but balling out just the same (better than usual, really). Utah State, a popular sleeper pick due to their high KenPom rating and hereditary claim to NIT greatness (Ryan Odom, Dave Odom, now you know), is out of the running for the national championship, while Oregon, whom many called overhyped, moves on to play a whole different kind of Aggie.
Me, You, and Wazzu: Cougar Town Celebrates as Santa Clara Weeps
The Washington State Fighting Probability Equations hit all the right variables last night as Tyrell Roberts dropped 23, shooting 7-of-16 from three, to eliminate Santa Clara. The basketball team. Not the school or the city. And from the NIT, not from existence altogether. No nukes! Anti-nuke tournament! Unless we’re talking nuclear power, in which case there is a case to be made for a Nuclear Invitation Tournament, provided we have adequate safeguards.
Road Trip! St. Bon-Adventure Reaches Rocky Mountain Highs
The Bonnies beat the Buffs in Boulder, and the question now becomes whether they’ll be winded from their days in the Flatirons or if their red blood cells will be operating so efficiently that they swallow Oklahoma whole on Sunday. It’s the red ones that get better at altitude, right? The white ones stay the same? White ones are immune system, red ones are oxygen? Blue ones mean you’re Indiana or Kansas or Duke or UNC or Kentucky or UCLA?
ToNITe
Smaller slate tonight (it’s hard to keep a full eight games waiting—everyone’s so eager this time of year), but Dayton and Mississippi State each play on the road as seeded teams due to arena conflicts, Saint Louis and Northern Iowa square off in a rekindling of an ancient Missouri Valley Conference rivalry that didn’t actually exist because SLU left a full seventeen years before UNI joined, and we get to see Rick Pitino coach Iona while…oh man, I already forgot who the Florida interim is. Al Pinkins. Thanks, Google.
Game of the NITe is Iona/Florida, based on intrigue. Sorry to the other twelve teams in action. You’ll have your chances if you win enough games.
Other NIT-Bits
Update on the bracket challenge can be found here. Eight players fouled out last night, I have now eaten two frozen pizzas since the tournament began.
Seiya Suzuki: Cub. Kyle Schwarber: Phillie.
The Cubs are doing a little bit of moving and a little bit of grooving, waking up after a sad night (Anthony Rizzo signed with the Yankees) to learn 27-year-old Japanese import Seiya Suzuki is going to be playing on the North Side. Later in the morning, a little more sadness, with Kyle Schwarber going to the Phillies, but not actively bad vibes from the Cubs right now. If Tom Ricketts really does buy Chelsea, he should be pelted (without harm being caused) with rotten nightshades, but look: We know who he is now. He’s a sleaze, he’s a fraud, and he also helped the Cubs win a World Series, so he might not be that ineffective. It’s the dishonesty that bites, especially because it shows he thinks his consumer base is dumb. As though an NIT blogger could be dumb. You’re the dumb one, Tom! Eat shit! Now go win me another World Series.
Oh, also, Andrew Chafin signed with the Tigers, so not getting him back, which dramatically reduces the odds I have a mustache on June 10th (currently +5000, accepting bets on both sides [to not have a mustache is -20000]).
The Coyotes Beat the Sens Again
When we last did notes, the Senators and the Coyotes were tied at two. Well, the Sens lost. 5-3. While only allowing 15 shots. And Filip Gustavsson wasn’t that bad! Just five good shots.
Matt Murray might not be back for the rest of the year, and I haven’t followed the situation closely but I’m getting the idea part of it might be because the Senators only have three or four competent defensemen out of the six. Murray saw Nikita Zaitsev keep popping up on the little list beat reporters tweet out of who’s skating with who at practice and said he wouldn’t play without hazard pay. Kind of like when the person who does the work for group projects in class just decides to take an F on principle. Except, well, this doesn’t actually hurt Murray at all. Trade deadline still allegedly next week, Sens play tonight against the Blue Jackets (7:30 PM EDT, ESPN+), game’s in Ottawa.
***
Viewing schedule, if you aren’t going full hot-remote, flipping between NIT games (second screen in italics):
- 7:00 PM EDT – Mississippi State @ Virginia, ESPN2
- 8:00 PM EDT – Northern Iowa @ Saint Louis, ESPN+
- 9:00 PM EDT – Iona @ Florida, ESPN2
Bedtime after that. No meaningful college basketball tomorrow or Friday, so feel free to take a breather. Sleep in and whatnot.
