NIT here we come!!!

The Cal Bears Mens Basketball Team has made the prestigious postseason NIT tournament. We are headed for our second National Championship in less than 10 years!!!

Actually, we are a four seed, with Ohio State as the presumed opponent if we can get passed the always tough New Mexico Lobos. Ohio State was probably the last team not taken into the NCAA tournament. Arizona State was probably the second team not taken - both 1 seeds in the NIT. So, like many who were hoping that they would get a much higher postseason berth, and are disappointed (see Cal Bears vs Texas Tech Holiday Bowl 2004) they may not actually make it out of the first round. The nice thing about the NIT, though, is that you get to play at home if you are the higher seed. So Cal, if they win, and if Ohio State wins, will have to travel to Ohio to play the Buckeyes. That actually could be pretty fun for the team. As a college kid, I would get a kick out of Columbus.

But say the Bears do beat all comers, and make it to the semi-finals. It would be a kick to see old Todd Bozeman playing the Bears again if (another long shot) the Morgan State Bears made it to Madison Square Garden. They actually were guaranteed a spot in the NIT, since they were a team that was first place in the season, but failed to win their conference tournament. So they are seeded 8th in the south bracket.

Washington was not offered a spot in the NIT, but may be offered a spot in the CBI. Their RPI was too high, even though they finished above Cal in the final Pac 10 standings. We also beat them the other day, so that may have made it easier.

I actually like the new format NIT - it eliminates the issues with the NCAA tournament trying to expand, and I think it gives the other teams something to play for. Particularly for the teams like Morgan State, who got reamed in their little postseason tournament, and had no chance of getting into the NCAA even though they won the season long conference championship. Those teams for too long have been getting the shaft, and there was no guarantee that they would get into any post-season action. It also means that those teams have a shot at playing more than just one game in postseason play, unlike getting seeded 16 and playing UCLA in the opening round. My guess is that those teams will be a little more pumped up than the typical BCS league also-rans who are disappointed with the NIT and will have some pretty good upsets.

I like the way the Pac 10 does it as well. The Pac 10 tournament winner is not the conference champion (well, actually, this year they are). The Pac 10 tournament winner is the Automatic Bid qualifier and Pac 10 Tournament Champion. The actual league champion is the winner of the round robin process.

I do think that Arizona State got robbed. They beat both Oregon, and Arizona in the league standings and head to head, and yet they are out and the other two are in. Plus they beat USC, and Xavier, five and three seeds. The sad thing is that everyone says they played a cream -puff schedule out of conference. But it really was not their fault. They played LSU, who sucked this year but was not supposed to. They played Princeton this year, who sucked also in a surprising fashion (331 RPI - their worst ever - normally about an RPI 100 team). They beat 7 tournament teams, and only lost to two which were not tournament teams - Nebraska (96 RPI, and they should have won) and Illinois (104 RPI and the first game of the season). Oh well.

I think the Pac 10 will do well in the tournament. The SEC was looking good, but I think the ACC and the Pac 10 will be the conferences to beat this year. As far as it goes, both Stanford and UCLA have good draws as both are in the Anaheim, CA pod. UCS will have to go to Omaha to play Kansas State, and then probably Wisconsin if they win. But I think USC could be the dark horse of this tournament. They have a relatively weak bracket and I think they could get to the final four. We'll see.

So the Bears were probably the 14th or 15th team taken in the NIT tournament. That would make them the 14 or 15 spots outside of the NCAA tournament. That being said, if they had a RPI spot about 16 points higher (say, 70 or so) they could have gotten in. Just so you know, that was one extra win at home against a team that we had a substantial lead over in the second half and blew it - like Arizona State, or Arizona, or Washington, or Stanford, or...

We really were not that far off the tournament this year. And that really sucks, in so many ways.


GO BEARS!!