Alas, Lipscomb.
What might have been.
Strangely, when you graduate Garrison Matthews (and Rob Marberry and Eli Pepper and Nathan Moran) and Kenny Cooper transfers and Casey Alexander goes up the road to coach Belmont, it becomes much more difficult to contend for NIT titles, and unlike last year, when the Atlantic Sun had two (2) NIT contenders entering the league tournament, there is but one this year.
Liberty.
The “here’s what you should know about Liberty” blurbs you’ll read this month will likely go one of three ways.
The first will be to stick entirely to the basketball team, which—while not as good as last year’s—is still one of the best low-majors out there. They’re well-rounded statistically. They slow it down. Their best players, Scottie James and Caleb Homesley, are rated as KenPom’s best players in the Atlantic Sun, having each moved up one spot following Matthews’s graduation from Lipscomb. If they find their way into the NIT, they will be a team to be reckoned with, probably on the five or six-line, not too far from where Lipscomb was last year.
The second will include all of that and will also include a passing reference to Liberty’s controversial nature.
The third will address that controversial nature.
Liberty is an Evangelical Christian school. It has rules and policies that reflect this. That, in and of itself, is not highly controversial. Many schools have such rules and policies. Its very direct political connection to the Republican Party sets it apart from other schools, though, making those rules and policies more of a flashpoint than they are at, say, Dallas Baptist (not to equate the two—we don’t know enough about DBU to do that). With the recent shift in the Republican Party’s stated ideology and political platform, and Liberty’s own growth as a university (it now has over 100,000 students, though 85,000+ are online-only students; it recently transitioned to FBS football; etc.), Liberty has naturally become even more of a flashpoint itself, independent of its rules and policies. This status has been amplified by the actions of Liberty’s president, Jerry Falwell Jr.
There is plenty of literature available online and in print about Falwell Jr., and if you’re interested in reading more about Liberty, we recommend this piece from Politico as a starting point. We, The Barking Crow, don’t try to be in the business of telling people how to think about matters of politics and religion. In this case, however, we feel the need to make our feelings clear, lest we give a misleading impression of our own thoughts. We, myself and my roommate and Joe, disagree with a good chunk of Liberty University’s theology. We disagree with Liberty University’s current politics. We do not think highly of Falwell’s actions (we think quite lowly of them). But, we believe in the importance of religious freedom (though this provokes conflicting thoughts for us in certain matters), and we believe that Liberty University’s students, fans, and supporters do not deserve to be lumped in with Falwell. We don’t know what Scottie James and Caleb Homesley think about Falwell, and we don’t feel a need to know what they think at this moment. We’re ok with them being basketball players, and we’re going to treat them as such.
Now.
Back to the NIT.
Liberty makes the NIT if they lose at some point in this tournament. Unless. Unless North Alabama wins the tournament. Because North Alabama isn’t postseason-eligible (still transitioning from Division II, so they’re actually CIT and CBI-eligible, but it sure is easier to just say they aren’t postseason-eligible), and Liberty might get conscripted into the other tournament if North Alabama wins. We haven’t seen any official word from the Atlantic Sun about how they’d handle this unlikely scenario, but oh by the way this reckless behavior by the A-Sun extends to expansion, where they’re trying to create some sort of super league. The A-Sun is monstrous. The A-Sun cannot be contained. The A-Sun is that scrawny kid from your high school who always wanted to start a fight club.
As we said, it’s unlikely North Alabama will win the A-Sun Tournament. It’s also unlikely Liberty will lose. They get to play all their games at home. They’d probably be a double-digit favorite in a championship game against even North Florida, who lost the regular season championship to them via tiebreaker. Our model has them only 21% likely to make the NIT entering play tonight, a calculation that assumes they’ll miss the NIT in the North-Alabama-wins-the-A-Sun-inducing-delightful-chaos scenario.
We mentioned North Florida. We like North Florida. They play fun basketball. But they’re not making the NIT, so that’s all they get right now.
Finally, the nuts and bolts: it’s a standard, eight-team, single-elimination tournament. No reseeding occurs, unless, again, the A-Sun got frisky and didn’t tell us. The higher seed hosts each game. The games are tonight, Thursday, and Sunday. Buckle up.
Finally finally, circling back to Lipscomb. As you’ve probably heard by now, Nashville was devastated last night by one or more tornadoes. It’s terrible, awful news, and we at The Barking Crow send our condolences and support to Lipscomb and the rest of Nashville and the rest of Tennessee. We wish we had more to offer than thoughts and prayers, but we don’t believe thoughts and prayers to be meaningless in situations like these.
Woof. That was a lot. Look out for previews on the Big South and the Horizon and Patriot Leagues later today. We’re going in increasing order of NIT relevance, so the Patriot League’s up next. Thank you for joining us on this NIT odyssey.
