It’s tough to predict what’s going to happen during a college basketball season. In order to make a projected NIT bracket I took the (somewhat) easy way out and used Ken Pomeroy’s preseason rankings to figure out bids. Here’s the bracket.
Note: We’ll have our first real NIT bracket around the end of December or early January as conference play kicks off.
Last Four Into NCAAs: St. John’s, Illinois, Cincinnati, Maryland
Four In Before: Kansas St., Boise St., Providence, Colorado
NIT Bracket:
1. BYU
8. UAB
4. Mississippi
5. Richmond
3. Xavier
6. SMU
2. Oregon
7. Oklahoma
1. Missouri
8. Texas
4. San Diego St.
5. UNLV
3. Georgia Tech
6. Oregon St.
2. La Salle
7. Penn St.
1. Washington
8. West Virginia
4. Seton Hall
5. Dayton
3. LSU
6. North Carolina St.
2. Arizona St.
7. Utah St.
1. St. Mary’s
8. DePaul
4. Miami (FL)
5. Vanderbilt
3. Massachusetts
6. North Dakota St.
2. Butler
7. Saint Joseph’s
From looking at the other brackets Indiana St. (not even in the NIT bracket as they’re 98th in KenPom), La Salle, BYU and San Diego St. are getting a lot more respect from humans. Overall though I think this bracket does a reasonable job of setting initial expectations about what could happen. It’s a long season and some of these teams definitely have bubble potential – hence the reason they’re in the NIT – but it also just goes to show how far some teams have to go.
NYC Buckets Archive 