~2017-18 Big Ten Basketball Thread~

[ELA]

I don't think winning the NIT proves you are the best team left out at all.  Your resume is cut off on Selection Sunday.  I agree that the "best" teams left out, the most talented teams, are probably high majors.  But it doesn't mean they were more deserving of the bid.  Just like if the stat was the opposite, that wouldn't be proof that they should have been in either.

Over the last 9 years, only one #1 seed (Minnesota in 2014) has won it.  So none of the winners are even coming from the group of teams that were on the bubble.  Judging anything about the winner (other than the fact that the teams who actually had a shot at the tourney don't seem to care at all) seems pointless.

[FearlessF]

I'm rooting for PSU to win the NIT. I always root for major conference teams in the NIT because small conference fans seem to be convinced that they get screwed in the NCAA when, in fact, the opposite is true.  Typically the NIT is won by a major conference team:

• 2017:  TCU
• 2016:  George Washington
• 2015:  Stanford
• 2014:  Minnesota
• 2013:  Baylor
• 2012:  Stanford
• 2011:  Wichita State
• 2010:  Dayton
• 2009:  Penn State
• 2008:  Ohio State
• 2007:  WVU
• 2006:  USCe
• 2005:  USCe
• 2004:  Michigan
• 2003:  St. Johns, subsequently vacated, Georgetown was runner-up
• 2002:  Memphis
• 2001:  Tulsa
• 2000:  Wake
• 1999:  Cal
• 1998:  Minnesota, subsequently vacated, Penn State was runner-up

Note that over the past 20 years the NIT winner has usually come from a major conference.  

1996 Nebraska Cornhuskers!

[MrNubbz]

Looking forward to Loyola - Nevada even though you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who knew less about either

[MrNubbz]

My wife and I only have 4 teams left in our brackets.

Serves ya right for taking my advice

[ELA]

Serves ya right for taking my advice

On getting a wife?

[MrNubbz]

That's entirely his own doing,probably

[TyphonInc]

lol

[HailHailMSP]

Will be very curious which A&M team Michigan gets tonight. Is it the one that beat UNC, Kentucky, and West Virginia all by double digits. Or is it the one that was 3-4 in their last 7 games getting beat up by teams like Miss State.

Michigan will need good offensive spacing and to hit some 3's. I think Houston was a very good test for Michigan in prepping for A&M. Houston, by almost all computer metrics, was rated top 15-20 in the country in defense.

[ELA]

Will be very curious which A&M team Michigan gets tonight. Is it the one that beat UNC, Kentucky, and West Virginia all by double digits. Or is it the one that was 3-4 in their last 7 games getting beat up by teams like Miss State.

Michigan will need good offensive spacing and to hit some 3's. I think Houston was a very good test for Michigan in prepping for A&M. Houston, by almost all computer metrics, was rated top 15-20 in the country in defense.

I wouldn't touch that game with a 10 foot pole.  As you said, Texas A&M has been all over the place, and so had Michigan.  They were hotter than anyone in the Big Ten entering the tourney, then played so poorly Thursday, they probably would have lost to about 55-60 teams in the tourney, just not Montana.  Then needed the buzzer beater.  I could see a Michigan blowout win, or a Texas A&M blowout win, or anything in between.

[DevilFroggy]

The NIT is weird. In 2010 with what was Herb Sendek's most talented ASU team (sophomore James Harden right before he declared for the NBA and a center who played in the NBA for a bit as well) the Sun Devils as the #1 overall seed got bounced in the first round to Jacksonville St. After bitching about not making the tourney (thanks to Sendek's patented weak OOC schedules) too.

[PSUinNC]

I don't think winning the NIT proves you are the best team left out at all.  Your resume is cut off on Selection Sunday.  I agree that the "best" teams left out, the most talented teams, are probably high majors.  But it doesn't mean they were more deserving of the bid.  Just like if the stat was the opposite, that wouldn't be proof that they should have been in either.

Over the last 9 years, only one #1 seed (Minnesota in 2014) has won it.  So none of the winners are even coming from the group of teams that were on the bubble.  Judging anything about the winner (other than the fact that the teams who actually had a shot at the tourney don't seem to care at all) seems pointless.

Agreed, I don't think it means anything with relation to not being selected for the NCAA's.  I see it as a building block to next year - extra games, against relatively strong competition and extra practice.  

[MarqHusker]

1996 Nebraska Cornhuskers!

The only time in human history Nebraska basketball had the nation's longest winning streak.  They ran off a few wins the next year after Kentucky lost early the next season.

[MaximumSam]

Michigan hitting stone tough shots, but good defense being played early by both teams

[Brutus Buckeye]

This weekend is always kinda meh.


The opening weekend is where it's at, and the final four is obviously important.