We talked recently about how Texas’ road upset of Purdue really screwed up their chances of an NIT repeat. Since then, they’ve vanquished Cal Baptist and Prairie View A&M. Those results were expected, but they’re still a bit disappointing—they would have been helpful losses for the NIT cause.
It’s possible Shaka Smart is trying to take the “strong nonconference play followed by a 7-11 conference record and immediate Big 12 Tournament loss” route back to the NIT. It’s also possible the Longhorns need a loss soon, with tonight’s date with Georgetown conceivably one Smart’s had circled on his calendar.
Yes, lost in all the hubbub about Texas returning to Madison Square Garden, where they dominated in the 2019 NIT Final Four en route to the program’s second-ever title, is the fact that there’s a game to be played, and when the season’s over, it could turn out to have been a big one.
Georgetown enters the game 3-1 with a home loss to pretty-good Penn State and no notable victories. They’re certainly on track for their second straight NIT appearance, with the biggest question surrounding them being whether they can win enough games against a challenging nonconference slate (Oklahoma State, Syracuse, SMU, and UNC-Greensboro all await after tonight’s affair with Texas and tomorrow’s with either Duke or Cal) and the rugged Big East schedule to get themselves in the conversation.
This, then, could be a great non-victory for the Longhorns should they lose. Beating Georgetown this year is likely a résumé-stuffer, filling up that second quadrant and making it difficult to weasel down into the NIT (“It is easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than for a team with a lot of Q2 wins to find the NIT”). Falling to the Hoyas would raise just enough doubts about Texas to pull them back down towards the NIT picture.
On the flip side, though, Coach Smart has to balance getting to the NIT with winning once there, and some speculate that learning to lose in Madison Square Garden is the last habit a team wants to build if they want to win two games there at the end of the year and repeat as NIT champions. It’s a tough decision, and yet another reminder why the NIT, with all its tricks, is such an intricate, complicated, challenging tournament.
Ok, cool. Hook ’em.