NIT Gets What it Obviously Wanted

General NCS Basketball48

All four of the NIT’s #1 seeds got to play all three of their games at home. All four of the #1 seeds advance to New York for the NIT’s Final Four.

Is this good for the tournament?

Does this incent teams to want to play in the tournament in the future?

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General NCS Basketball

48 Responses to NIT Gets What it Obviously Wanted

  1. GoldenChain 03/22/2007 at 10:26 AM #

    The biggest cry I heard was Drexel getting left out!lol
    I think the NIT is much better now that the NCAA has taken it over. All the games were competitive. The home court thing will always produce results that are skewed.

  2. noah 03/22/2007 at 10:33 AM #

    Didn’t Clemson have an RPI in the 40s? or maybe that was their sagarin rating.

    Clemson got screwed by that call in the Dook game. Win that game and they’re in the NCAA tournament. INstead, Dook gets WAY overseeded as a 6 and gets exposed by ODU.

  3. redfred2 03/22/2007 at 10:54 AM #

    Bo, don’t forget, we couldn’t have ever made it into the NIT in the first place without the best laid plans of ” “. Like some folks have already told us, we should give him the majority of the credit for this season and all of the glory that he deserves for allowing us the ability to squeak into that lower tournament.

    Sorry, but I felt it would be totally unfair to go without even mentioning that here.

  4. burnbarn 03/22/2007 at 10:59 AM #

    LRM.. wait for Chavis league.

    W/O a coaching controversy it willbe quiet this off season….for a nice change.

  5. highonlowe 03/22/2007 at 11:12 AM #

    Like deadspin joked, maybe there should be a tourney for the teams who didn’t make the NIT. It just isn’t fair for those lil’ guys

  6. BoKnowsNCS71 03/22/2007 at 11:45 AM #

    highon — ECU shoulda had some place to play. lol

  7. bTHEredterror 03/22/2007 at 12:09 PM #

    Hey chop, the NIT is more like the hook-up with a plain friend of a beautiful woman you asked out. In the end you go out with her anyway just to try and stay close to the girl you really want.

  8. Wolfman300 03/22/2007 at 12:30 PM #

    Dan Patrick show teased that there is a rumor that Josh McRoberts of DUIke will sign with an agent. Anyone else heard anything about this?

  9. choppack1 03/22/2007 at 12:53 PM #

    That’s stupid – McRoberts should have gone last year – he’s done nothing to improve his stock.

  10. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 03/22/2007 at 12:54 PM #

    The problem is that NCAA tournament doesn’t have the top 65 teams in the country. The bottom 1/3 of NCAA tourney invites are probably worse than most of the 32 team NIT field. Most of those teams are disposed of on the first Thursday and Friday so they are forgotten pretty quickly but it is, in my opinion, a mark on the NCAA’s that they do not invite the top 65 teams. Anyone that would argue that Belmont or Jackson State are better than almost any team in the NIT are crazy.

  11. redfred2 03/22/2007 at 1:10 PM #

    “Most of those teams are disposed of on the first Thursday and Friday…”

    “Anyone that would argue that Belmont or Jackson State are better than…(any of the other teams who were also KO’d in the first round in the previous years)…are crazy.”

    So what, they went didn’t they? Isn’t that all that really matters. Now, if Belmont and Jackson St can just get a consecutive appearance streak going they’ll be right up there with us.

  12. StateFoxer 03/22/2007 at 1:32 PM #

    On a tangent, does anyone know how strong Duke’s incoming class is? I think things might be falling into place for us now that McRoberts is leaving.

  13. pman27 03/22/2007 at 1:35 PM #

    Home court is a big advantage, especially in post-season. The only issue I have with higher seedings is that the seeding assignments seemed a bit dubious. Using RPI and Sagarin to seed is viable, but they are memoryless and don’t account for how well a team is playing at the end of the year. The NIT chair said they seeded based on a “who would you rather play?” comparison. However, that still went back to record, RPI, etc and didn’t seem to account for how well a team was playing at the end of the season. If so, I think we might have been a little higher than a #6, and Clemson lower than a #1 (more power to ’em though).

  14. choppack1 03/22/2007 at 1:46 PM #

    Maybe it’s because they are admitting more majors now, but the NIT seems to have better and better fields.

  15. zahadum 03/22/2007 at 1:50 PM #

    StateFoxer, on paper it looks to be a very good class, with one 5 and one 4 star swing forwards and one 4 star shooting guard. (so far, not considering guys they might still be in the running for) In particular, should really improve their 3 point shooting.

    On the other hand, none of the 3 look to help in the 2 areas where Duke was noticeably weak this year, athleticism and strength at foward position. (the 2 forwards are 195 and 200 lbs)

  16. MrPlywood 03/22/2007 at 2:08 PM #

    McBob decides to jump ship? Too funny. And too bad for him that he couldn’t “will” his team past VCU like his counterpart over there in Chapel Hill. Good job leading your team to 4 straight losses. I’m so happy that the Pack could be a part of that 🙂

    Anyway, back to business. I know they are trying to duplicate a Final Four atmosphere in NY, but I don’t think it would be that big a deal to have the quarters there as well. I think it’s a huge advantage for the #1 seeds to play on their homecourts for 3 games in a row. More advantage than is warranted. Go ahead and let them play the first two, then on to a “neutral” site. That said, MSG would almost be a homecourt for Syracuse…

    As far as teams wanting to play in the tourney, I think that if you feel like you are better than some of the teams that made the NCAA, you’ll want to another chance to prove yourself…

  17. Dan 03/22/2007 at 2:09 PM #

    Duke’s incoming class is solid.

    Nolan Smith is going to fit in at Duke. He likes the defense, and he’s the good version of a combo guard. Meaning he’s actually good at both spots.

    Kyle Singler is being compared to Dirk. Obvious hyperbole, but a lot people mean it.

    Taylor King is another highly touted swingman. I’m not so sure about this kid though.

    Its a great class. It may in fact cure their backcourt problems. However, sans Pat Patterson, it does nothing to cure their front court dilemna. And there is very little physical strength in it. If they dont get Patterson, K is going to have pull some s*&t out of his butt next year.

    All things being equal, and they never are, big teams should have a field day with Duke next year. Duke just pressures the ball so much sometimes its hard to get the ball inside… what with all the damn fouling and all.

  18. bTHEredterror 03/22/2007 at 2:54 PM #

    I was pleased to see Clemson pull thru for the ACC. I expect in the championship, WVU may give Clemson untold trouble with the 1-3-1. Miss St Vs. WVU will be entertaining. Clemson-Air Force will be ugly. I agree, NIT would be much better with the final 8 in NY. What kind of reward is it to give a team who wins two road games in a row, a third road game?

  19. choppack1 03/22/2007 at 3:25 PM #

    I think the NIT is trying to create a unique atmosphere.

    Of course, a 3 or 4 day tournament might do that as well.

  20. StateFoxer 03/22/2007 at 3:35 PM #

    Thanks for the update. I appreciate it.

  21. CaptainCraptacular 03/22/2007 at 4:01 PM #

    Look for Pocius to have a good year for the Devils next year. I mentioned this in a previous post, but he’s deceptively athletic and plays with a ton of intensity. I don’t know about his shooting touch, but he definitely gave Dook a spark the few minutes he was in vs us and vs VCU. I don’t know why he didn’t play more, unless they think his defense is terrible right now.

  22. Gene 03/22/2007 at 5:27 PM #

    Pocius finished a couple of shots against us in the ACC Tourney that made me wonder how they went in. He did a good job keeping under control in a lot of traffic.

    As far as McBob going pro, folks said he’d have been a high lottery pick last year. I think the longer he stays in school and his weaknesses are exposed the more it will hurt his draft stock.

    Maybe Billy King will save Krczyweski the embarrasment of his guy not making a roster and sign up McBob for the 76er’s, like he did Randolph.

  23. bTHEredterror 03/22/2007 at 10:41 PM #

    Pocius is easily beat off the dribble, a flaw our team was able to exploit in a few situations. Runs hot and cold too. But he can explode like he did on us, I expect we’ll see more of him next year.

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