NIT and CBI thoughts

[Sean Miller Fan]

- Only the most diehard of college basketball fans realize how much more difficult it is to make the NIT now that they give automatic bids to regular season conference champions that don't win their conference tournament which means there's only going to be about 20 or so at-large spots available. When you factor in that only about the Top 50 teams in America make the NCAA Tournament, the next 20 best teams make the NIT. So, in doing the math, you have to be one of the Top 70 out of 351 to make the NIT (Top 20%) to make the NIT. Contrast that with college football, where about 60% of teams go bowling and professional sports where about 50% of teams make the playoffs. People just don't realize that making the NIT is not an easy thing to do. I'd much rather be in the NCAA Tournament but going to the NIT once in awhile aint the worst thing in the world.

- Speaking of the NIT, the key for me is winning the first game. For a power conference team like Pitt that is used to playing in the NCAA Tournament, you always have to worry about how motivated they'll be. You know an A10 team like GW will be highly motivated to beat an ACC team. Likewise, a team like Bucknell would love to knock off an in-stae Temple team going through the motions after being snubbed. If we can win the first, then it becomes about basketball and competition and I think we get max effort. And I like our path after the 1st game. Playing against a name-school like Temple in Philly would be cool but I honestly think they may get upset so we could get another home game against Bucknell.

- As for the CBI, the trend continues as only 1 Power 6 team accepted a bid (Colorado who was 15-17). The market has spoken and these teams simply don't want to play in the CBI for various reasons but you would have to think there is a business model out there for power conference teams that don't make the NIT (Smizik, stop reading this now). 10 years ago or so, Disney talked about starting a tournament like this playing all games at their Field House down in Lake Buena Vista. Looking back, that seems like a good idea. 16 teams, 4 days, all in one location, etc. A tournament could look like this:


In RPI order:
UMass
Memphis
USC
Cal
Seton Hall
LaSalle
Tennessee
Minnesota
Clemson
UNLV
Penn State
Florida State
St. Bonaventure
Washington
TCU
Oregon State

I'm telling you there are enough sports networks that somebody would buy the rights for that tournament. If you allowed sub .500 teams in, teams like Florida, Michigan, and KST could get in over some of the bottom teams. The automatic NIT bids have completely prevented most of these teams from making the NIT, ending their season early. There's enough good teams to have another type of tournament..........but CBI is not the model that's working.

 

[Jeffburgh]

This is goofy, but

Maybe JD has to work his way up the ladder.

He won the CBI two years ago, maybe he can win the NIT this year and then work on the NCAA in a few years ...

 

[B_Man]

That would be one heckuva preseason tournament that would bring a lot of interest.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Originally posted by B_Man:
That would be one heckuva preseason tournament that would bring a lot of interest.

I was talking about a post-season CBI-like tournament. Play all the games at Disney's Wide World of Sports, or maybe a site like Dayton which has crazy good college basketball fans. People would go and somebody would televise it. If there can be 35 bowl games, there has to be a market for something like this. There's enough name teams that don't even make the NIT.

 

[Pitt79]

Originally posted by Sean Miller Fan:
- For a power conference team like Pitt that is used to playing in the NCAA Tournament, you always have to worry about how motivated they'll be.

Have you ever played a sport? If these guys are worth anything at all, they'd bust their butts to win if it's pickup game at a playground with nobody watching but the "next up", just out of ego alone, so they can pound their chest nand squack. Or maybe we don't have that type of player?

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Originally posted by Pitt79:

Originally posted by Sean Miller Fan:
- For a power conference team like Pitt that is used to playing in the NCAA Tournament, you always have to worry about how motivated they'll be.

Have you ever played a sport? If these guys are worth anything at all, they'd bust their butts to win if it's pickup game at a playground with nobody watching but the "next up", just out of ego alone, so they can pound their chest nand squack. Or maybe we don't have that type of player?

Have you ever watched the NIT.........or a minor bowl game? Motivation plays a huge factor in these types of games. Some teams are super excited to be there. Some teams are playing because somebody told them to. This isn't news to anybody. Hopefully, we play with passion and energy tonight.

 

[IamHeisenberg]

Originally posted by Pitt79:

Originally posted by Sean Miller Fan:
- For a power conference team like Pitt that is used to playing in the NCAA Tournament, you always have to worry about how motivated they'll be.

Have you ever played a sport? If these guys are worth anything at all, they'd bust their butts to win if it's pickup game at a playground with nobody watching but the "next up", just out of ego alone, so they can pound their chest nand squack. Or maybe we don't have that type of player?

So you are telling me Kentucky was putting forth max effort at RMU a few years ago?

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

Originally posted by IamHeisenberg:

Originally posted by Pitt79:

Originally posted by Sean Miller Fan:
- For a power conference team like Pitt that is used to playing in the NCAA Tournament, you always have to worry about how motivated they'll be.

Have you ever played a sport? If these guys are worth anything at all, they'd bust their butts to win if it's pickup game at a playground with nobody watching but the "next up", just out of ego alone, so they can pound their chest nand squack. Or maybe we don't have that type of player?

So you are telling me Kentucky was putting forth max effort at RMU a few years ago?

That Kentucky team? Probably.

They weren't good, obviously.

 

[Pitt79]

Originally posted by SoufOaklin4Life:

Originally posted by IamHeisenberg:

Originally posted by Pitt79:

Originally posted by Sean Miller Fan:
- For a power conference team like Pitt that is used to playing in the NCAA Tournament, you always have to worry about how motivated they'll be.

Have you ever played a sport? If these guys are worth anything at all, they'd bust their butts to win if it's pickup game at a playground with nobody watching but the "next up", just out of ego alone, so they can pound their chest nand squack. Or maybe we don't have that type of player?

So you are telling me Kentucky was putting forth max effort at RMU a few years ago?

That Kentucky team? Probably.

They weren't good, obviously.

I never played BIG TIME sports, the biggest sport I had the honor to participate in personally was WPIAL AAAA Football. But I can't imagine stepping on any field and not wanting to win, even if you're playing in the driveway with nobody watching. Are you saying these guys are playing on National TV, ESPN, in The Pete in from of 5000+ and they are not playing their best, like that is not good enough? Most of these guys are DONE in 2-3 years, they ain't going pro, the few that do will probably be playing in front of 300 people in the Phillipines or Romania (ask Ashton Gibbs!), this is as big time as some of them will ever see, so shame on them if they aren't playing their best to win, the rest of us would give our right arm to play garbage time in a 1st round NIT loss, so these guys, if they feel this isn't "big enough" for them to care are asssholz.

 

[TIGER-PAUL]

Second tier anyway you spin it.