Before we begin, a moment of appreciation for Monday NITe Lites. What we saw, from saddest to happiest:
- Saddest: Colorado’s loss to Kansas. Colorado was trying so hard. Kansas was sometimes not. The Jayhawks are like your high school friend who started smoking pot and suddenly lost all their energy, except if pot was AJ Storr. The Buffs are like your friend from gym class who did LSD one weekend and won’t stop talking about it. The LSD friend should win that battle. The LSD friend has something to live for! Anyway, I feel compassion for Hunter Dickinson and a sense of great loss when I think of what Dajuan Harris used to be. Not like this, Bill Self. Not like this.
- Second-saddest: UNC beating Florida State. For UNC, it wasn’t satisfying because of course they beat Florida State. That’s who UNC is. They just don’t beat teams who are any good. For Florida State, it was just another step in the long march towards the end. (Bonus sad points to Leonard Hamilton for not smiling on command. Bonus sad points to Hubert Davis for the secret contract extension.)
- Third-saddest: The Nebraska/Michigan ending. First off, Michigan’s attempt to “do the smart thing,” fouling up three, came way too early for college basketball, eventually leading to a wide-open look from Connor Essegian which probably would have won the game. Second, Connor Essegian missed the wide-open look which probably would have won the game. Did we ever get an answer about whether Greg Gard and Essegian got along? Did we ever get an answer about whether Essegian’s dad’s a little bit nuts in the stands? No hate to Essegian or Gard or Essegian’s primary male role model. Sometimes, you miss the shot. I mean these questions genuinely. I forget where everybody landed on those topics.
- Balling as a hobby: McNeese clinched another Southland Conference title, paying homage to this nation’s current political climate by showing no hospitality at all to lesser-resourced visitors arriving via the Rio Grande Valley. Where McNeese really won the night, though, was when it revealed it has a guy on staff with even more swagger than Will “Strong-Ass Offer” Wade. Introducing: Student manager Amir Khan.
- Balling as an occupation: Norfolk State won, and this man’s name is Christian Ings.
- Happy!!!!: We wrote at length yesterday about the ASUN tiebreaker situation, so let us relieve your bated breath: Lipscomb handled their Peay with landmark efficiency while Jacksonville downed Eastern Kentucky on the back of Robert McCray V’s first career double–double. It’s ok. You can ask what all this means. The short version is that Lipscomb now needs less help than North Alabama to win the ASUN title. Neither controls their fate, but Lipscomb’s back in the lead. This is important to us because Lipscomb’s in position for an NIT automatic bid if they do win that conference championship (and lose the conference tourney). The same can’t be said for UNA.
Now. The Tuesday NITe Flites.
We’ll go conference by conference with these, to keep it wieldy. That’s why they’re Flites and not Fites (intense) or Rites (solemn) or Kites (fun!).
The SEC: The Search for the Real Columbia
In college basketball’s best conference (it’s ok; we can call it what it is), South Carolina visits Missouri (9:00 PM EST, ESPNU), and in addition to the NIT stakes—South Carolina’s trying to catch LSU for exempt bid position—I’m pretty sure the loser has to at least temporarily change the name of their city. Rules are rules.
Elsewhere in the conference Ulysses S. Grant built (it’s ok; it wouldn’t exist without him), LSU hosts Tennessee (9:00 PM EST, SECN), which has to feel kind of ominous for the Vols. You beat Texas A&M in College Station and immediately have to play in a place laden with NIT fever? LSU has forgotten it has a basketball team. That’s a recipe for a trap.
Finally, as far as the relevant action goes, Florida’s at Georgia (7:00 PM EST, SECN), which is a big bubble game for our guy Mike White but also gives every pop country/college basketball diehard stuck in 2013 a chance to ask their bookie, “What’s the Florida/Georgia line?” then snicker quietly to themselves.
In irrelevant action, someone said Alabama plays Mississippi State. Goin’ nuts and slappin’ butts.
The ACC: Oh Shit, It’s Pitt
In college basketball’s greatest conference (fellow ACC-Heads, stand up), Pitt hosts Georgia Tech (7:00 PM EST, ACCN), and does any fanbase hate watching their team right now more than Pitt? It’s yet another no-upside, only-downside evening for the Panthers, as Javian McCollum’s still out with that concussion for the visitors but Jaland Lowe may or may not induce a bunch of headaches for the home team.
Nothing else too relevant on the seaboard this evening, but Louisville fans are probably either way too confident or way too nervous about Virginia Tech and Duke vs. Miami could give us college basketball’s first 100–0 game.
Big 12: T–C–Who?
Is TCU an NIT team? We sure hope so. Got some great NIT performances from Jamie Dixon’s guys in the late 2010’s. Got an NIT title from Jamie Dixon’s guys in the late 2010’s! They’re at West Virginia (9:00 PM EST, CBSSN), who’s trying to mount an NIT case of its own but from the opposite angle.
With at least two Big 12 teams destined for either the Hellfires of Sin City or a College Basketball Crown-induced postseason opt-out (we should really write up a post explaining that whole situation), TCU’s trying to thread a very specific needle. They need to stay behind Cincinnati, who hosts Baylor (7:00 PM EST, ESPN2) but stay ahead of teams like Utah and Oklahoma State, the latter of whom gets a big opportunity against shorthanded Iowa State in Stillwater (8:00 PM EST, ESPN+). I don’t know what that means for the Frogs regarding winning or losing this game. That’s why Jamie Dixon makes more money than I do. He knows.
(I wonder if Jamie Dixon even knows the College Basketball Crown exists. Think about that. This tournament which has been a thorn in my side for eighteen months might not even register within Jamie Dixon’s consciousness. And yet, it threatens to hurt him more than it could ever hurt me. The curse of knowledge. The terror of ignorant bliss! The weight of the human experience, all contained within one poorly-conceived attempt to shake college basketball loose from its NCAA foundation.)
Big Ten: McCaffery vs. Underwood – The Final Round?
Whether through Fran McCaffery leaving Iowa or Brad Underwood heading somewhere like Texas, tonight’s game in Champaign (9:00 PM EST, FS1) could be the final bout between the Big Ten’s favorite spitfires. Iowa’s also angling for that NIT invite, facing a slightly less confusing road than TCU (more margin for error in the Big Ten, for a variety of reasons).
We talked about Northwestern’s heist in yesterday’s NIT Bracketology Rundown, and we talked about Minnesota’s date with fate in yesterday’s NIT Bracketology Rundown, and what a coincidence would you look at this they play tonight at the Barn (7:00 PM EST, Peacock). This is one where everyone can pull on the same NIT rope. Win your home games, lose your road games. Our terms are simple.
Washington’s probably not making the NIT and Washington’s probably not beating Wisconsin right after Saturday’s Wisconsin wakeup call, but Washington does visit Madison (9:00 PM EST, Peacock), and I can’t place how the two cities in question here feel about one another. I think people who are authentically from Madison probably idolize Seattle, but I bet there’s a big share of transplants who think Seattle sucks. I think people who are authentically from Seattle have some scorn towards Madison, and I bet the transplants there are split. That’s just a guess, though. If anyone runs any polling at the Blue Velvet Lounge, please share the results.
Big East: Forget the Basketball
Ok, don’t forget the basketball. Marquette hosts Providence (7:00 PM EST, FS1), and we want our guy Shaka Smart to succeed in everything he does. But if we can set aside the basketball for a minute and focus on the basketball, Georgetown announced today that Thomas Sorber’s done for the year. For most basketball fans, this hardly made a ripple. A possible first-round pick playing for Georgetown? Cool story. But for NIT diehards, the implications are massive. Butler and Georgetown are locked in a race for the Big East’s exempt bid. That race is almost identical to the race to develop the atomic bomb. Advantage, at least for now, to the Indianapolitans.
Mountain West: Rich Rich and the Sundance Kid
We need a better nickname for Richard Pitino the Lesser. (Only one with a national title, though.)
Two main events in the MWC this evening: New Mexico’s not looking NIT-likely, but San Diego State’s in the mix, and the Lobos visit the Aztecs (11:00 PM EST, FS1) in a game some would describe as chile meets chill. Meanwhile, Nevada’s lost the plot a little lately as Steve Alford tries to convince Indiana to do something really, really funny, but a big win over Sundance Wicks’s Wyoming Cowboys (10:00 PM EST, I’m assuming MWN) could put Reno back on the NIT map.
As though anyone could ever remove Reno from the NIT map.
In the undercard, Colorado State tries to navigate a trip to the United States Air Force Academy (9:00 PM EST, again assuming MWN on this one). Niko, Nique, and the Rams haven’t lost to a bad team since December. They’re 12–4 in the Mountain West. NIT sleeper? They’re looking like a good bet to at least make the field.
WCC: Game of the Late NITe
Gonzaga’s at Santa Clara (11:00 PM EST, CBSSN), which is fun because Gonzaga’s good but they’re not good and Santa Clara’s mediocre but they rock. If you’ve followed WCC basketball this year, you know exactly what I mean. If you haven’t, you’re welcome for explaining WCC basketball just now.
Atlantic 10: Black & Blue & NIT Stu
Sorry for inserting myself into something as sacred as VCU’s cross-town trip to Richmond (7:00 PM EST, CBSSN), but if a rivalry has a name to which I can add my own name while building upon the rivalry name’s meter and rhyme scheme? As the commercial about Jesus not getting in fights at protests so famously sings, “I’m only human, after all.” VCU is on the bubble. The bubble Joe Lunardi talks about.
Is there any hope left for Robbie Avila, Josh Schertz, Isaiah Swope, and the NIT? To be honest, it looks pretty bad right now. But however bad it is, it would help if they won at Davidson (7:00 PM EST, ESPN+).
Sun Belt: Another Tiebreaker Maelstrom
Two things: First, I’m not positive what maelstrom means, so apologies if it’s a synonym for genocide or NCAA T*urnament expansion or both. Second, both the ASUN and the Sun Belt have great title races going on these days that are highly NIT-relevant and wonderfully convoluted. Makes you wonder what the Summit League could achieve if it renamed itself the Sun–Mit League. What are those guys summiting up there, anyway? Each other’s butts?
There are, by my count, six separate Sun Belt teams who could win this league’s regular season title. Of those six, Arkansas State looks great for NIT auto bid eligibility, Troy looks good, James Madison has a chance, and I wouldn’t rule out South Alabama or Appalachian State if they can pull off the first-place finish. Also of those six, four play tonight and none play each other.
JMU’s in first right now, and they visit Louisiana-Monroe (7:30 PM EST, ESPN+) in a very ESPN+ game. If the Dukes win, App State and Marshall are eliminated from title contention. If the Dukes go down, the door opens up a little for Troy, who’s at Texas State trying not to catch the measles (8:00 PM EST, ESPN+). If the Dukes and the Trojans both fail, App State and Marshall could each start believing that little bit harder. The Mountaineers are in Statesboro playing Georgia Southern (7:00 PM EST, ESPN+). Cornelius Jackson & Co. are home against Old Dominion (7:00 PM EST, ESPN+).
We could really go down the rabbit hole here, but I think the big thing to point out is that JMU should try to win by a million if they can. Win by a million, and their kenpom and NET and Torvik and BPI and KPI ratings should all get that little extra boost, a little extra boost the Dukes need. We love our JMU friends. Bring this NIT berth home.
MAC: Just Some Kids From Akron
What chance does the MAC have of supplying an NIT automatic bid recipient? Zip! Or should I say…Zips!!!!!!!
*pause for standing ovation*
I don’t think Miami’s going to lose to NIU (7:00 PM EST, ESPN+) immediately after NIU finished scorning the MAC, but if they do, Akron can clinch the MAC title with a victory in Muncie over Ball State (7:00 PM EST, ESPN+). Akron’s perfectly positioned to make the NIT with a MAC title and a MAC Tournament loss.
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I think that’s everything for this evening. You’ve got a little more than an hour to get prepared. I’d suggest boofing liquid methamphetamine, but I won’t, because 1) that might kill you and 2) isn’t NIT intrigue all the stimulus you need?
See you tomorrow, for either Wednesday NITe Rites, Wednesday NITe Fites, Wednesday NITe Kites, or Wednesday NITe Bites. Could also be something else entirely. We don’t really plan ahead around here.
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