N.I.T. possibilities...

Rob's Jacket wrote:

Fantastic book, BTW.

Was required reading for some class I took at UP. Intro philosophy I think?

Rob's Jacket wrote:We're in the CIT again ... and on the road.

http://www.oregonlive.com/pilots/index.ssf/2010/03/pilots_basketball_portland_wil.html

Tough match-up. Northern Colorado is 24-7, and 12-1 at home.

Too bad we couldn't buy a home game like OSU, the only team with a losing record in the CBI.

Update: OSU is the only team playing in any of the postseason tournaments with a losing record! The closest other team is North Carolina, at 16-16. UNC "earned" their NIT bid by going 4-12 down the stretch.

I can't say I'm excited, but, hey...maybe we're putting ourselves onto the map for when the NCAA tourney expands to having 90-something teams. LMU also made this tourney. Here's the field:

http://www.collegeinsider.com/tournament/2010_teams.html

The NIT became lost to us when several of the smaller conference regular season champions (e.g. Quinnipiac) lost their conference championships. The NIT has an agreement to automatically accept regular season champs that lose in their conference tourneys. And there were several of these teams that took up a potential UP space. I would be discouraged, except I think we might have finally reached the point where we have a competitive program on a yearly basis.

Last year I have to say I was extremely excited to make this tournament... this year not as much but it is still pretty good that we are in post season play 2 years in a row. What kills me is LMU having a home game when we have to travel to play what seems to be one of the tougher opponents.

ekrauss wrote:The NIT became lost to us when several of the smaller conference regular season champions (e.g. Quinnipiac) lost their conference championships. The NIT has an agreement to automatically accept regular season champs that lose in their conference tourneys. And there were several of these teams that took up a potential UP space. I would be discouraged, except I think we might have finally reached the point where we have a competitive program on a yearly basis.

You also have to remember that the NIT basically has no criteria for entrance other than being a school that potentially brings in the green stuff by having fans that travel well. RPI and record are almost irrelevant.

Well, anytime a tourney that gets little brother status to the NCAAs has the opportunity to tap into the UNC/UConn fan bases, regardless of how their season went, they are clearly going to do it... They are going to take those big schools over an "NIT Bubble team" like UP any day of the week for the exposure alone.