The stakes are always high in the NIT Season Tip-Off.
They are especially high tonight.
In the event’s championship game, undefeated Oklahoma State squares off with one-loss Mississippi.
The former has yet to notch a good victory, though Wednesday’s triumph over Syracuse might fall into that category when all’s said and done. That game began a string with a lot of risk for reputable wins, though, and even with the Big 12 its typically strong self, the Pokes may want to start losing soon.
After tonight, of course. A program of Oklahoma State’s stature can never sacrifice a chance at NIT glory, even the preseason kind.
The latter is in a more comfortable NIT position. For starters, they just aren’t as good as Oklahoma State, but beyond that, they narrowly escaped what would have been an impressive road victory over Memphis last weekend, and with the bottom tier of the SEC snapping its jaws and a softer nonconference schedule ahead, it’s easy to see Mississippi’s NIT path.
Both, then, are free to try to win themselves an imitation NIT title tonight, even if the former has to contend with the risk such a victory poses for their real NIT hopes.
In the undercard, Penn State steps in having done everything right so far. Last year taught the Nittany Lions that with the Big Ten scheduling approximately four hundred conference games a year, nonconference losses should be few and far between. It’s a narrow needle to thread, though, and Penn State’s loss to Mississippi was a smart way to avoid getting too much sympathy from eventual selection committees. Yes, it cost them a shot at the NIT Season Tip-Off title, but some programs have higher goals than others.
Opposing them is always-daunting Syracuse, a true NIT titan this decade (I might have said that exact same thing in describing them on Wednesday, but not a lot of you people clicked on that, so here we are—no dessert until you eat your dinner). Jim Boeheim’s squad is as kinda-good as ever, and the Battle of the Catskills (didn’t check a map, don’t sue me) should be especially lively played under the bright lights of Brooklyn.
If the Brooklyn bit didn’t clue you in, the NIT Season Tip-Off is, of course, the Hipster NIT. It can twist its way into saying it was here before the NIT was cool (the NIT’s always cool, but is especially cool in March when it’s actually happening, and I guess November’s before March in Hipsterland). It’s really skinny. It’s, as has been stated, finishing in Brooklyn.
But remember: hipsters aren’t a different species. They’re still the same under all that indie music. So rest assured: while Oklahoma State or Mississippi’s gonna leave this game wearing an ironic graphic tee under a cardigan, they’re still the same NIT-aspiring programs we’ve always loved.
