As you may have heard, UC-Riversim is NIT-Sim bound. We did it. We lost in the Big West Semifinals. I know, I know. Not everyone can lose in the Big West Semifinals. We’ve been immeasurably blessed by the fates. But we’ve also worked very hard for this. I’ve filled out three google forms a week for the Heat Check Sim. That’s almost twenty minutes of work, every week, for a few weeks.
If you’re new to UC-Riversim, here’s your background reading:
Preseason
Nonconference
Conference Regular Season
When we last engaged in the blogging contract (I write, you read), I was preparing my squad to take on Long Beach State in the Big West Quarterfinals. Before the game, though, a distraction emerged.
As you may remember, I was trying to recruit a JuCo guard to shore up my roster for next year, having whiffed on all of my high school prospects.
Didn’t work out:
Thankfully, I budgeted a lot of energy on transfers, and I’m hopeful the willingness to cheat I budgeted works on transfers as well as it was supposed to work on high schoolers. If it doesn’t, well, we’re gonna learn whether this simulation sends in walk-ons when rosters are partially empty.
Anyway, I couldn’t dwell on the miss long. I had a game to coach. Two games, exactly:
See that?
That’s an NIT automatic bid.
You may be confused about how I got a 14-seed when the NIT only has eight seeds in a region. The answer’s simple: The sim is understandably built to have two 16-team regions in the NIT rather than four eight-team regions. Understandably, you ask? Well, yes. As an imitation of the NIT, it’s important not to too closely replicate the real thing, lest one infuriates the fates.
Here are the real regions:
Yes, there our beloved UC-Riversim is, the equivalent to a seven-seed, ready to take on Oklahoma in Norman. Game’s tomorrow. Or today if you’re reading this Friday. Or yesterday if you’re reading this Saturday. Etc.
As always, the media had questions. As always, it was a little difficult in the multiple-choice format to make clear I am stoked about being in the NIT:
Guessing the lads lose at some point tomorrow, so let me just say: LaBradford McCollum, you’ve been a great big man. Erik Carl, if you transfer, you were a wonderful picture book author masquerading as the Big West’s most impressive scorer. Whatever my point guard’s name is, it was fun having you around.
It’s been real, friends. Go Highlanders. Let’s make an NIT run to remember.
