Hello.
It is, as many of you have correctly noted, the month of March, which is the holiday season for college basketball, mainly because this is when the NIT starts.
As The Internet™’s resident NIT fan, I’ve received a lot (editor’s note: not a lot) of questions about what to watch.
This will be easier for everyone to figure out once Joe Stunardi finishes that damn bracketological model he’s been working on that I delayed by completely failing to do my portion of the data mining, but for the next two nights, here’s what I’m doing and what you should be doing, some of which are the same:
Tonight (Today is Wednesday, March 6th)
I’m kind of busy tonight, to be honest. Still, I’d suggest doing the following:
- Get a good night of sleep (always important).
- Brainstorm defenses of your NIT fandom for the haters. Their numbers will only grow over these next two weeks.
- Go to an Ash Wednesday service if you’re into Christianity and/or ashes and haven’t gone already.
- Keep an eye on St. Francis (PA). If they lose sometime in the NEC Tournament, they’re the first team into the NIT (#automaticbid), which would be cause for much rejoicing. Joe says they’re an 85% favorite to win their opener tonight. We’ll see.
- Get a little miffed at the universe for allowing there to be a St. Francis-PA and also a St. Francis-NY which is more often called St. Francis-Brooklyn. This in addition to the OG St. Francis (St. Francis-Assisi), and Pope Francis (Francis-Argentina), who has good odds to be sainted one day according to the canonization betting markets.
Tomorrow Night (Tomorrow is Wednesday, March 7th—nope, wait. Definitely Thursday)
I am less busy tomorrow night, I think. I feel like I’m forgetting something. Hmm. Anyhoo:
- Frantically check The Barking Crow for the launch of the bracketology model. Joe says it should be up on Friday, which I’m guessing means he’ll roll it out Thursday night and post about it Friday. Also, clicks help us immensely, so the more time you can spend clicking our website in general, the better. Never hurts.
- Tell your friends the MAAC Tournament is starting, being sure to say MAAC in a sheep voice to distinguish it from the MAC Tournament. M-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-C.
- Keep an eye on Lipscomb and Campbell, both of whom play, and both of whom would probably end up in the NIT if they were to lose (#automaticbid). Again, we’ll hopefully have a percentage for the likelihood of this for Lipscomb, who some are saying could fall victim to that elitist tournament but is probably NIT-bound with a loss. If Campbell loses, they’re in the NIT fur sure, and they’re bringing Chris Clemons with them. Fight on, Camels. But not too hard.
