It’s a big day, and if you’re driving right now, we suggest you pull over, download today’s episode of Free Hoops, listen to that on the way to your destination, then read this when you get to your destination. To be honest, we’re covering a lot of the same themes here. But because people learn different ways! What to watch tonight:
- We’re characterizing this as “arrival” if UC Irvine wins and “ignition” if it’s Chattanooga. The Anteaters have been a model of consistency under Russ Turner, and it’s been good consistency. This would be their most significant breakthrough. Which is fitting, given that at least by kenpom, this is the best team Turner’s ever coached. The Mocs are ascendant, and we’ve already seen this run pay off in terms of galvanizing their fanbase. There’s history at UTC, but they can build a bigger identity with this championship than they’ve ever had before. More on the podcast about this idea. Both schools do have a lot of untapped resources. Most mid-majors do, to be honest. The difference is the mining infrastructure, which is mostly a cultural thing. That is really, really hard apparatus to build up, especially because of how nebulous it is. In addition to the obvious significance of winning a title in the oldest/greatest tournament in college sports, a victory tonight would be a great way for either of these programs to make a lot of progress fast.
- In a similar vein (and we didn’t get into this on the pod), the champion’s going to raise the bar for either the Big West or the SoCon. We don’t like how much college sports has shifted towards people being fans of conferences rather than teams. We think it’s perverted and wrong. Fans should hate their rivals. But this is why raising the bar is good. If UC Irvine wins: “Sure, UCSD won the Big West last year. But they didn’t do shit in the postseason.” If Chattanooga wins: “Congrats on a conference tournament semifinal, Furman. Talk to us when you do something notable without Kihei Clark’s brain glitching out and handing you a win.” That kind of thing. You can elaborate from there.
- The Myles Che vs. Chattanooga angle is probably going to be overplayed, but it’s awesome, especially because of how much of an on-court character Che is. Straight out of an AND1 mixtape, Che is a presence, and he is also a former Chattanooga Moc who only transferred to UCI last offseason. Given so much of the Mocs’ own identity centers on their backcourt (Wieland and the other wings and bigs are great, but Bonham & Huff are the faces of the team), the showdown’s going to happen where we can see it. Fun players. Fun reunion.
- It’s a stylistic clash. UC Irvine is strong and defensive, somewhere between an NBA style and industrial Southern California. Irvine’s in Orange County, but the playstyle’s more Inland Empire. Chattanooga is creative and fluid, a college basketball fan’s favorite kind of college basketball team. UC Irvine is a machine. Chattanooga is a song. If you want to know more about these teams, there’s a seven-part NIT Final Four preview over on our homepage.
- Expect a solid Chattanooga turnout and not much from UC Irvine. It’s a long way to travel on a Thursday night, and honestly, I do think UTC has more of an established sports culture than UCI. The South is sports country, and it’s especially college sports country. The West Coast is not. Especially California. Hinkle Fieldhouse will not be full, but it doesn’t need to be full to get loud. It got loud down the stretch last night in the WBIT Championship. There will be a few thousand more people there for this.
- The game’s at 9:00 PM Eastern Time on ESPN. Would assume it’s Mike Corey and Fran Fraschilla on the call again. (ESPN, update your spreadsheet!)
For those interested in our postgame content:
- We’ll get the final NIT Bracket Challenge update out tonight to those on the email list. For those not on the email list, the scoreboard will at least be updated and the top three will be announced. We won’t have to resort to the tiebreaker, and we’ll be in touch about prizes. Big thanks to the Sickos Committee for contributing some stickers to include in the victory packages.
- There’ll be another episode of Free Hoops out tomorrow morning. Going to be recording that very late, so apologies in advance if it gets weird. Might steer into it, fortunately or unfortunately for you.
- No apologies for One Shining MomeNIT getting weird, as that is the point. One Shining MomeNIT kind of started this whole thing. That’ll be published sometime tomorrow. Hopefully in the morning, but we might be working with Southwest’s wifi. Check the homepage for that and for 3 Thoughts/3 Things, which’ll probably be published sometime later tomorrow, if we’re being honest.
- If you’ve enjoyed following along this NIT season and you’re not subscribed yet to our daily(-ish) email newsletter, that’s probably the best way to keep up with what we’re doing going forward. Please also subscribe to Free Hoops, follow us on Twitter/X, and follow us on Instagram. Big offseason project is going to be getting our Instagram presence moving again. Lot of big offseason projects this year. Lot of big offseason projects every year. Please don’t set odds on what we’ll accomplish. We don’t want to know how long you’d make them.
- Thank you to everyone who’s followed along. If you’re sticking around for the summer, we’re excited to have you on board. If you’re an NIT-only follower, we’re grateful to you too, and we’ll see you whenever you next tune in to the college basketball universe. As always: Bona NIT.
