We don’t really cover the Preseason NIT much around here for one big reason:
1. It confuses me.
There are the weird regions, and campus games. Some of the games don’t have any bearing on future matchups, even though there’s no pool play. At times, it’s just a tournament in disguise.
Still, while it isn’t the NIT, this year’s NIT Season Tip-Off can give us all a big whiff of the good stuff, since it does have quite a few NIT contenders.
In the Orlando Horizontal (that’s the word I’m seeing for it online, and yes, I’m as curious as you about how often that term gets used), Yale and Bucknell entered Monday’s action as serious possibilities for NIT automatic bids (especially with this year’s Ivy League tournament at Harvard). In the NIT Season Tip-Off Orlando Horizontal Championship Game (You know, the NITSTOOHCG), then, Yale’s victory over the Bison could end up being very important for seeding. If you can get a six seed as an NIT automatic bid, you’re in a very good spot. Yale has their sights set in the right place.
In the Brooklyn Vertical (I’m not making these terms up I swear they’re what come up when I go on the ESPN Events website), Penn State is, of course, one of the first programs one thinks of when thinking of the NIT, having thoroughly dominated the tournament in 2018 and packing Madison Square Garden for that year’s Final Four. The Nittany Lions are, unfortunately, off to too good a start to really be in the NIT picture right now, but that’s nothing the Brooklyn Vertical can’t fix: whoever is in charge of scheduling teams to play in the NIT Season Tip-Off did their job at far beyond an NIT level this year, because the slate is perfect. Mississippi, who Penn State plays tonight, is expected to finish the SEC season right around .500 with no good nonconference victories. Oklahoma State, who plays in the nightcap, has a daunting nonconference schedule that could raise the Cowboy hype before a final record around 16-16 drags them back down into the NIT, where their dreams lie. Finally, the Pokes’ opponent this evening is Syracuse, a stalwart of NIT-land these years.
In short, tonight’s action should be a lot of fun, and Friday’s could be even better. Heck, yesterday’s was fun too, but I just assumed the Horizontal and the Vertical were happening concurrently (that’s on me).
It’s not the NIT. But it’s the closest thing November can give us.
