NIT Tournament Preview - Some of the Nations Best
by Charles Jay
NIT IS NOT FOR LOSERS - THIS YEAR IT HAS A LOT OF INTRIGUE
The NIT is underrated. There, I said it.
Remember that this tournament was, at one time, just as prestigious as the NCAA basketball tournament that ran concurrent to it, if not more so. Stars were born at Madison Square Garden, which hosted all the games in the tourney until recent years. The NIT eventually fell into disrepair, essentially starting when ESPN had control over who was going to be invited and who was going to be left out, and has been resurrected to some extent through fuller cooperation with the NCAA and the help of a lawsuit, I might add.
Still, the tournament is known best as a sort of "consolation" for teams who either had their "bubble" burst on them or had no real hope of getting an at-large bid to the NCAA's in the first place. As such, it is a very different animal than the NCAA tournament because motivation and enthusiasm become important factors. Like one of the "minor" college bowl games, some teams are happy to be there and keyed up for a strong performance, while others who were hoping for a BCS bid are disappointed, and play like it.
It is almost impossible to tell how some of the teams who were snubbed from the NCAA's are going to react here, although if they looked at it in the healthy way, playing here is a tremendous opportunity. The better teams in this field would have been seeded 9th through 12th in the NCAA's, and would most likely be one-and-done once they got there. In the NIT they are much more evenly matched, and have more of a chance of playing longer, and practicing more, than they would otherwise. The NCAA rule is that a team can continue with practices up until the day of the national final, but with this tournament a team can do that and actually be playing for something along the way.
That's where the coach comes in. Some of them take this chance very seriously; others may sit and brood about not getting the NIT invite and let their team get flat. Look for coaches who have had a history of bringing teams that came to play into the NIT. Bob Knight was always one of those coaches; he had a tremendous sense of history and understood that the NIT is where the cream of the crop among basketball's pioneers performed. In his early days as a coach, this is where his Army Cadets were destined if they happened to have a very good season, so of course there was all the motivation in the world.
As far as intrigue is concerned, some of the opening-round matchups in the NIT far out-distance those first-rounder’s in the NCAA.
South Carolina has won this tournament in two of the last four years, and this year the Gamecocks are in the field again, and they're coming with a different coach in Darrin Horn, who was last seen leading Western Kentucky into last season's Sweet 16. They're going to play host to Davidson, which features the most spectacular player in the college game in Stephen Curry, who could be making his final case for the pros in this tournament.
The winner of that game is going to play the winner of the game between Arizona State down the stretch, and play the kind of slowdown game that frustrates opponents. Mills faces off against center Aron Baynes, a fellow Aussie.
St. John's in the Big East tournament, travels to Baylor, a team that doesn't have a lot of size but has a bunch of guys who can fill it up from the outside. The Hoyas have a huge problem dealing with Baylor's array of guards, who helped get the Bears to the finals of the Big 12 tourney.
Florida made it to the semi-finals of last year's NIT, as Billy Donovan, who was disgusted by the play of his team down the stretch, broke out the whip and got some of the best from his youngsters. That was supposed to springboard the team to an NCAA bid this year, but it didn't happen, so it will be interesting to see if that disappointment carries over to the opener against Jacksonville. How many people remember when the Dolphins, led by Artis Gilmore, made it to the finals of the NCAA tournament? They haven't had a lot of success since, but they've won 18 games two years in a row and feature an outstanding mighty-mite guard in Ben Smith, who should present a quickness problem for anyone in the Gator backcourt.
Weber State, a team that finished its regular season with 12 straight wins but tripped in the Big Sky tourney (eventually won by Portland State). The Aztecs, like other teams in this field, have a number of seniors who are looking for a "last hurrah."
A very interesting matchup between Big East and ACC teams who expected more is set for Miami Hurricanes. Miami will once again rely on Jack McClinton (19.3 ppg), who is 46% from three-point range and takes almost twice as many shots as anyone else on the roster. Providence, coached by Keno Davis, who took Drake on a magic carpet ride last season, has a lot of experience and scoring balance but their problem is that they just didn't score enough quality results against the big boys in the Big East. Their seasoning will count for something, especially at home (Miami is hosting some of the first-round NCAA games, so that wasn't a big possibility).
Three of the top five scorers in the country will be in action in the NIT - Curry, who averaged 28.4 points; Lester Hudson of Tennessee-Martin, which squares off against Auburn, and Jodie Meeks of Kentucky, which goes up against the defensive quickness of UNLV in a Tuesday opener at Lexington.
As far as picking the overall winner is concerned, it's so tough, because there are few "gimmes" and the teams are much more evenly matched. As mentioned, there are also other intangibles to consider. I could see a Final Four grouping in the Garden, though, consisting of Davidson, Baylor, Notre Dame and Penn State.
