2023 NIT

[Wags]

Yes they did because of their historic win in NCAA tourney. Merrimack through no fault of their own had to stay home and not get reward of winning conference tourney, which beyond sucks for them and fans (we know feeling from a different perspective in 2020). If you asked fans of both teams whose season they would rather have answer isn’t even close.

Of course the fans would want what FDU did over what Merrimack had to deal with but that doesn't validate or invalidate an entire season from start to finish. It simply means that Merrimack had the better season, which it did -- by beating FDU out for both NEC titles -- and that FDU had its one shining moment at the expense of Merrimack not getting the opportunity that it should have had instead of FDU because of a terrible NCAA rule.

One game in March does not validate or invalidate an entire season. If Merrimack went undefeated and then lost by one point in the NEC final and FDU would have gone 0-31 but somehow won its next five (NEC tourney, First Four, Purdue) it would have been an incredible, miraculous, historic, unheard of March run but still a terrible season that miraculously ended well.

[HUSID80]

All in all I'd say it was a VERY GOOD YEAR, but we expect more and hopefully Speedy can deliver it next year.

I think sometimes with our passion about the team, we take staunch all-or-nothing sides with this statement when both are and can be true.

If were' going to compete at a higher level we need to get some bigs who can score and REBOUND; that was our greatest weakness this year...

How do we know Lual Manyang won't become this?

Agree Wags, he can be the missing link for this team.

[Wags]

Utah Valley over Colorado, 81-69, tonight.

Shame, Hofstra might have had another home game to get to Vegas. Although, not sure they'd have beaten Utah Valley anyway. They are playing very well in the NIT.

[triplec2195]

Another home game would've been over the top incredible but.............!

[HofstraPride1]

Another home would've been over the top incredible but.............!

Is possible Utah Valley may have hosted that anyway but def would have been unique opportunity either way to punch ticket to NIT semis.


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[triplec2195]

Now a moot issue but what could have been. TOO BAD.

[Jojogunne]

In case anybody's interested:

NIT Quarterfinals

Tuesday, March 21
No. 1 Oklahoma State vs. No. 2 North Texas | 7 p.m. | ESPN
No. 1 Oregon vs. No. 2 Wisconsin | 9 p.m. | ESPN

Wednesday, March 22
No. 2 Vanderbilt vs. No. 4 UAB | 7 p.m. | ESPN2
No. 4 Cincinnati vs. Utah Valley | 9 p.m. | ESPN2

[Wags]

In case anybody's interested:

NIT Quarterfinals

Tuesday, March 21
No. 1 Oklahoma State vs. No. 2 North Texas | 7 p.m. | ESPN
No. 1 Oregon vs. No. 2 Wisconsin | 9 p.m. | ESPN

And on ESPN2 tonight, the CBI semifinals: Eastern Kentucky vs. Southern Utah followed by Radford vs. Charlotte.
* ducks and adds quickly before anyone throws rotten tomatoes * - Lunardi is doing color commentary if that's a draw at all.

If you have Optimum: NIT on 210, CBI on 211, WBC championship game (USA vs. Japan) on 213.

[HofstraPride1]

In case anybody's interested:

NIT Quarterfinals

Tuesday, March 21
No. 1 Oklahoma State vs. No. 2 North Texas | 7 p.m. | ESPN
No. 1 Oregon vs. No. 2 Wisconsin | 9 p.m. | ESPN

And on ESPN2 tonight, the CBI semifinals: Eastern Kentucky vs. Southern Utah followed by Radford vs. Charlotte.
* ducks and adds quickly before anyone throws rotten tomatoes * - Lunardi is doing color commentary if that's a draw at all.

If you have Optimum: NIT on 210, CBI on 211, WBC championship game (USA vs. Japan) on 213.

Couldn’t pay me to watch CBI and hope we never take part in that joke event again. As far as NIT goes I don’t think we would have been able to host had we won Saturday since a high robotics competition taking place at arena now.


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[Wags]

No. 1 Oklahoma State vs. No. 2 North Texas | 7 p.m. | ESPN

First half football score rock fight. 24-17, North Texas at halftime.

North Texas has a starting forward (Moulaye Sissoko) with the same surname Michigan State's starting center (Mady Sissoko). I don't think there's any relation.

[Wags]

In case anybody's interested:

NIT Quarterfinals

Tuesday, March 21
No. 1 Oklahoma State vs. No. 2 North Texas | 7 p.m. | ESPN
No. 1 Oregon vs. No. 2 Wisconsin | 9 p.m. | ESPN

And on ESPN2 tonight, the CBI semifinals: Eastern Kentucky vs. Southern Utah followed by Radford vs. Charlotte.
* ducks and adds quickly before anyone throws rotten tomatoes * - Lunardi is doing color commentary if that's a draw at all.

If you have Optimum: NIT on 210, CBI on 211, WBC championship game (USA vs. Japan) on 213.

Couldn’t pay me to watch CBI and hope we never take part in that joke event again. As far as NIT goes I don’t think we would have been able to host had we won Saturday since a high robotics competition taking place at arena now.

The first CBI game tonight was actually quite entertaining, a lot more so than tonight's WBC championship game so far. 8 seed Eastern Kentucky beat 4 seed Southern Utah, on two FTs in the last second, to win 108-106 and reach the title game. It very nearly went to a 3rd OT tied at 106 apiece. All three Eastern Kentucky games in the tournament have gone to OT. Two other games in this year's CBI have gone to OT. Last year's title game was a very fun game, with UNCW beating Middle Tennessee in 2 OTs.

In the NIT tonight, North Texas got the mild upset on the road at Oklahoma State to reach that semis in Vegas.

[Wags]

The other NIT game was a good one tonight too. One-point Wisconsin lead at the half, they were down one late, but pulled it out, 61-58. Oregon missed a 3 at the buzzer that would have forced OT.

[Wags]

Wisconsin led North Texas, 54-46, with 9:08 left. The Badgers didn't score another point after that and lost, 56-54. The game-winning bucket came with 2:08 left. UAB beat Utah Valley in OT. Love the names of Jelly Walker and Tony Toney for UAB.

It's not often that a team gets a chance at payback in the postseason against the team that knocked them out of their conference tournament, but after North Texas lost to UAB in the Conference USA tournament on March 10, they can now beat UAB for the NIT title on Thursday.

If UAB wins the NIT, Conference USA will have three 30-win teams this year.

And, I know what we think of the CBI, but C-USA can also become the first conference to win the CBI, NIT, and NCAAT in the same season if FAU cuts the nets on Monday. Maybe Dusty May wasn't exaggerating too much when he played up how tough a league he said C-USA was at the East Regionals.

Who knows how the NIT semis would've played out in NYC, but if both semis results were the same there as in Vegas tonight, MSG would have crowned a champion from C-USA twice (NCAA East Regionals and NIT) within five nights.

[EvanJ]

If UAB wins the NIT, Conference USA will have three 30-win teams this year.

The NCAA lists 263 seasons with at least 30 wins, excluding 5 that were vacated. The 85 teams that won at least 30 games before this season were:

Arizona
Arkansas
Auburn
Baylor
Belmont
Bradley
Brigham Young (BYU)
Buffalo
Butler
California
California-Irvine
California-Los Angeles (UCLA)
Cincinnati
Connecticut
Duke
East Tennessee State
Florida
Georgetown
Gonzaga
Houston
Illinois
Indiana
Indiana State
Iowa
Iowa State
Kansas
Kentucky
La Salle
Liberty
Little Rock
Louisiana State (LSU)
Louisville
Loyola Chicago
Marshall
Maryland
Massachusetts
Memphis
Michigan
Michigan State
Middle Tennessee
Missouri
Murray State
Navy
Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV)
New Mexico
New Mexico State
North Carolina
North Carolina State
Northern Iowa (UNI)
Notre Dame
Ohio State
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Oregon
Pittsburgh
Purdue
Rutgers
Saint Joseph's
Saint Mary's
St. John's
San Diego State
Seton Hall
South Dakota State
Southern Methodist (SMU)
Stanford
Stephen F. Austin
Syracuse
Temple
Tennessee
Texas
Texas Tech
Tulsa
Utah
Utah State
Valparaiso
Villanova
Virginia
Weber State
West Virginia
Western Kentucky
Wichita State
Wisconsin
Wofford
Wyoming
Xavier

Of the 76 teams in the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, or Southeastern, 45 (59.2) have a 30 win season. Of the other 287 Division I teams, 40 (13.9 percent) have a 30 win season.

I am not checking, but I am assuming a conference has never had three teams get their first 30 win season in the same season, and probably never had two teams get their first 30 win season in the same season.

Florida schools have three 30 win seasons, which were all by Florida. Now Florida Atlantic could win 30 games, and they could play Miami in a Final that could have two teams in southern Florida.

[Jojogunne]

Between the NCAAT and MLB, I had totally forgotten about the NIT. The championship game is tonight on ESPN2 at 9:40, UAB vs. North Texas. UAB defeated Utah Valley and North Texas beat Wisconsin to advance to the championship game.

[Wags]

Between the NCAAT and MLB, I had totally forgotten about the NIT.

Between the NCAAT and the NIT, I had totally forgotten about MLB.

[Polito]

The NIT is the losers tourney - pretending otherwise is just polishing it up. Not hating on it at all, that's just the truth.

But I will say this NIT had some big time programs in it, some really great games, and it was still fun to watch. And I like the NIT, despite the reality of it's stature - I watch some of it every year.

Now the other tourney's, those are an embarrassment to the game and should all be cancelled.


As far as baseball, who the heck watches baseball in MARCH - it's basketball season!! Baseball is so ridiculously long, it drives me bananas. And I'm a baseball fan!! It never friggin ends.... winter meetings, winter ball, world classics, spring training, earlier and earlier opening days, postseason practically into Thanksgiving it feels like, it's insane lol

Like an 8 month season and half of it is completely meaningless. It's silly to me to be watching baseball while half the country is still skiing, so pointless to me. They need to shorten that season and make it matter a heckuva lot more. Every sport needs it's season, we don't need one sport spanning 3/4 of a year.

Rant over! Baseball enthusiasts will hate this take, and I will understand. I have this battle with an uncle of mine every year