Wisconsin vs. Our Hearts: It’s Wednesday NITe

It’s morning.

The A-10 is back.

And the Big Sky semifinals eventually did end (don’t say I’ve never stayed up late for you, Weber State).

Let’s talk NIT.

NIT Play-Ins

• 5:00 PM EST: Texas A&M Corpus Christi vs. Northwestern State (ESPN2)
• 6:00 PM EST: Howard vs. South Carolina State (ESPN+)
• 7:00 PM EST: Iona vs. Mount St. Mary’s (ESPN+)
• 7:30 PM EST: Lafayette @ Colgate (CBSSN)
• 9:30 PM EST: Alcorn State vs. Texas Southern (ESPN+)

Colgate’s playing in the Patriot League Championship, AMCC’s playing in the Southland Championship, these other three are quarterfinal games. Alcorn State and Howard aren’t favorites to win their tournaments (more on them later), but Iona is. Overall, you’d expect one of these five to lose, so if we get more than one automatic bid toNITe, NIT bubble fans have lost expected at-large territory. If we don’t get any? Congratulations for now, Santa Clara.

UNC, Wisconsin

• 6:30 PM EST: Wisconsin vs. Ohio State (BTN)
• 7:00 PM EST: UNC vs. Boston College (ESPN2)
• 11:30 PM EST: Arizona State vs. Oregon State (P12N)

Yes, we’ve added Arizona State to our wishlist. Attendance has become a narrative again. We need a local presence, and ASU people just feel like Las Vegas.

I would think that at least UNC would be a lock with a loss, and it’s possible we could grab all three. But then again, if we were to grab all three, would it unlock them all? Jailbreak style? It’s so tough.

Thankfully, only Wisconsin can really hurt itself here, and that would require not only winning but winning by a lot. Take heart, NIT fans. Gird your touchscreens. It’s only the first day.

Upper Bubble

• 2:30 PM EST: Pitt vs. Georgia Tech (ESPN)
• 7:00 PM EST: West Virginia vs. Texas Tech (ESPNU)
• 7:00 PM EST: New Mexico vs. Wyoming (MWN)

The thoughts with these are that Pitt could lock in with a loss (as long as there’s nothing too wild elsewhere), and that we’d really expect Texas Tech and New Mexico to also lock in with losses. If Tech wins, West Virginia’s suddenly pretty loudly in our territory, and we don’t know exactly what that would look like. Are the Mountaineers five games over .500? Or three? That’s a very important thing I am looking up right now and the answer is five. Yeah, I don’t think we’re getting Huggins.

Lower Bubble

• 12:00 PM EST: Syracuse vs. Wake Forest (ESPN)
• 3:00 PM EST: Washington vs. Colorado (P12N)
• 3:00 PM EST: St. John’s vs. Butler (FS1)
• 4:30 PM EST: UNLV vs. Air Force (MWN)
• 5:30 PM EST: Washington State vs. Cal (P12N)
• 5:30 PM EST: Seton Hall vs. DePaul (FS1)
• 8:00 PM EST: Villanova vs. Georgetown (FS1)
• 9:00 PM EST: Nebraska vs. Minnesota (BTN)
• 9:00 PM EST: Utah vs. Stanford (P12N)

Can any of these teams survive a loss? Only if they do it together, which would be among the funniest things we’ve ever seen but isn’t particularly likely, because of the whole Georgetown situation. In these games, the first team listed is the NIT bubbler, with the lone exceptions being that Wake Forest and Colorado are on the bubble and Washington and Syracuse need to do a lot this week to get there. Me? I’m keeping an eye on Nebraska. Because their fans will post Joe Stunardi’s address on a message board if I don’t.

Dueling Bubbles

• 9:30 PM EST: NC State vs. Virginia Tech (ESPN2)
• 9:30 PM EST: Oklahoma State vs. Oklahoma (ESPNU)

It’s pretty simple here, folks. NC State needs a loss? Virginia Tech needs a win. Oklahoma State needs a loss? Oklahoma needs two wins but you can’t win two if you don’t win one.

Lord, these teams place themselves in your benevolent hands. Please. Mike Young looks so concerned over there.

Deep Cuts

We’re gonna group these by league.

Mostly.

• 11:30 AM EST: Davidson vs. St. Bonaventure (USA)
• 2:00 PM EST: George Mason vs. Richmond (USA)
• 5:00 PM EST: George Washington vs. Saint Joe’s (USA)
• 7:30 PM EST: Duquesne vs. La Salle (USA)

In the A-10, the situation is this:

Duquesne could maybe make it interesting?

Really, we’re worried about the four teams playing tomorrow. So, if you’re a fan of a team on the NIT bubble, you want VCU to have the easiest opponent possible (‘cause they’re in line for the automatic bid) and Dayton, Saint Louis, and Fordham to all have the most difficult opponents possible. That means you’re on the side of St. Bonaventure, George Mason, Saint Joe’s, and Duquesne. Although again…might be playing with fire there with the Dukes. Got a hunch.

• 6:00 PM EST: Western Kentucky vs. UTEP (ESPN+)
• 9:00 PM EST: FIU vs. Louisiana Tech (ESPN+)
• 9:30 PM EST: Rice vs. UTSA (ESPN+)

Either the schedule I’m referencing is wrong, or Conference USA is doing the AAU thing again, with the divider down the center of the Ford Center.

We like either option.

FAU will play the Western Kentucky/UTEP winner, and while NIT bubblers on the low end want FAU to win this tournament, NIT bubblers on the high end want FAU to lose it and hold an NCA* *********t at-large bid (sending one more team down the NIT’s way). The likeliest way for that latter thing to happen is with a Western Kentucky win here. So: Lower Bubble? You want UTEP. Upper Bubble? You want WKU.

The other two games are similar. North Texas and UAB are deep in the NIT mix, and they’ll play the winners of these games, so Lower Bubble fans want those teams to lose tomorrow and Upper Bubble fans want them to win. The one twist? Since Lower Bubble fans want those teams to lose bad losses, everyone wants the worse team to win each of these two games. That’s FIU and UTSA.

• 2:00 PM EST: Colorado State vs. Fresno State (MWN)
• 9:30 PM EST: Georgia vs. LSU (SECN)

Two from the bigger leagues here.

Colorado State’s in the Duquesne situation, where they could conceivably climb back in if they start trucking teams. NIT Bubble fans therefore would like them to lose. Georgia? Not really in that situation, but maybe. Really, that one matters because Vanderbilt’s near the Lower Bubble, and they’ll play the winner. They’d prefer to play LSU, so their haters would prefer them to play Georgia.

• 9:30 PM EST: Rider vs. Saint Peter’s (ESPN+)

If Iona wins their game and NIT bubble fans are still wanting the Gaels to win this MAAC Tournament, they’ll want the Peacocks to win this one. Rider’s a bigger threat.

• 3:00 PM EST: Grambling State vs. Bethune-Cookman (ESPN+)

Grambling State’s the SWAC Tournament favorite, so their elimination would increase Alcorn State’s chances of not taking an NIT automatic bid.

• 8:00 PM EST: NC Central vs. Delaware State (ESPN+)

Same sentence here but replace ‘Grambling State’ with ‘NC Central’ and ‘Alcorn State’ with ‘Howard’ and ‘SWAC’ with ‘MEAC.’

Still a couple words shorter.

**

That’s what we’ve got. Even more tomorrow. Even…more on Friday? Or does it peak tomorrow? I kind of think it’ll peak tomorrow and then we’ll get into the deep, exhausted anxiety on Friday for everyone on the bubble, which with the NIT window as thin as it is means pretty much everybody.

Fun!