My final NIT bracket projection prior to the NCAA Selection Show at 6 pm on CBS is up on the site now. While seeding that bracket I tried to keep as tightly to geographic concerns as possible but I still included the teams I think will make the bracket. This means that I have the somewhat awkward first round matchup of Washington St. traveling across the country to play Villanova. My ultimate decision was that one awkward matchup is better than a bunch of slightly awkward ones. Last year's committee definitely agreed with this approach, but it could change this time around.
I know that having Vanderbilt in my bracket over Rutgers is against consensus. We'll see if that's right or wrong come the NCAA Selection Show. I feel certain that I'm going to miss on at least one team and potentially multiple along the NCAA cut line. There are just too many resumes that aren't that great and there were no bid stealers to help out.
On the other hand, there are ultimately 11 automatic bids to the NIT this season. That's exactly as many as there were last season and right in line with the historical range. The last automatic bid went to Yale, which gave me another team from the northeast to play with in the bracket.
There are lots of ways this NIT bracket could be wrong. Some teams I still think could hear their name called are: Nebraska, San Jose St., Dayton, San Francisco, and UCF. Theoretically, any team in my bubble post is fair game.
No comments:
Post a Comment