Summer School Valedictorians: The NIT running thread

Mizzou -- Kentucky HS championships are at Rupp this week, thus the move.

The CIT is fine and well for the mid and low majors. At least it gives a 20-win team from the Summit something to play for at the end of the year. Like I said earlier, it's harmless.

I'd rather watch second or third place teams from the low leagues playing for something than the ninth place team in the Pac-10 playing on.

 

Yeah, I don't have a problem with the mid-majors doing it as much as I do a very mediocre big conference team.

 

I thought that, too. Oakland was a pretty good 22-win team that didn't get to play in the NCAA (granted, they shit the bed in the final couple of minutes of the Summit League championship) and didn't get in the NIT. So if a tournament like the CIT gives them a place to play, that's fine with me.

 

Also have to consider with Penn St and ND that the kids might be on Spring Break. I don't know for sure, only speculating.

 

Also, random note: for anyone who wants to listen to NIT game that aren't being televised, Yahoo! Sports is doing free radio telecasts of the NIT games.

 

That Penn State video is so dark, I don't know how you can tell how many people are there.

Even so, between the end lines mostly filled and sparse behind the buckets ... I've seen worse crowds.

And I'll be the dork that gives some props to the NIT. It's been much better since the NCAA took it over, with the selection process, seedings and actual bracket/regionals. A school like Notre Dame is no longer getting greased all the way to the Garden just because it would likely deliver the best ratings.

It's more the Little Dance and less the losers' tournament. And come on -- we all know the winner will be much better than the 66th best team in the country. Ask Arizona State how valuable a deep NIT run was last year, as opposed to a likely one-and-done at the NCAAs.

 

Not sure about the schedule from here on, but if they keep the games to Monday-Tuesday, that'll help a ton, too. One of the big problems the last couple years was there was no apparent organization to the thing. You'd have two games on Monday, three on Tuesday, one on Wednesday, and one on Saturday. Seems like this year they're keeping everything together like the big dance.

 

Fair point about the short notice. And I suppose it would be better, if there's fewer fans, to let them pack into the lower sections and create a more intense atmosphere.

 

Only time Penn State drew all season was the night I was there -- Illinois, two weeks ago. And that WAS a charged atmosphere.

But they're always going to have to depend on townie/on-campus support to fill that place, because the fan who drives in from 40-50 miles away at other places doesn't exist here. They don't want to drive over the mountains into State College in the winter.

 

Isn't 40-50 miles away from State College -- in any direction -- just in the middle of nowhere?

 

Well, yes. If you're coming in from any sort of populated center, you're driving two miles in from Harrisburg.

Unless you count Altoona, which is surprisingly a 40-minute drive (Rene Portland's sons commuted to Altoona's Bishop Guilfoyle High School).

And I very seldom count Altoona.

 

Students were about the only people AT the Penn State game.