The four games that are happening tomorrow don’t influence this bracket in any way, so consider this my final NIT bracket projection. It’s tough to announce something so final, but I think this is the situation we’ve come to. I wish there was a way Ohio could be in this bracket after losing the MAC final to Akron, but I think that St. John’s – the absolute last team in – has a better overall resume.

Continue reading “NIT Bracketology: This Is It” →

Besides the inclusion of Long Beach State as an automatic bid the bottom of the bracket isn’t changing much tonight. What is changing is the top. Based on today’s set of games and a complete re-evaluation of the NCAA bubble I’ve come up with a new Last Four In and top two seed lines in the NIT. Not a ton has changed, but there are definitely some tweaks.

Continue reading “NIT Bracketology: Champs and Chumps” →

NOTE: NIT Bracketology is updated daily now. You can find the latest here.

What happens when every NIT team loses? The bracket becomes an absolute mess. The top two seeds in the WAC, Louisiana Tech and Denver, both fell in the quarterfinals tonight in Las Vegas. That means we’ve got another auto-bid team as the Bulldogs have joined the fray. Denver also drops out of the bracket for now, because the Pioneers’ bad loss is just really hard to stomach considering they haven’t done much to offset it.

Continue reading “NIT Bracketology Update: Everybody Loses” →

It’s that time of year again. Conference tournaments are upon us and Championship Week just messes with the NIT. For instance, on Thursday afternoon there will be eight games decided by 5:30 p.m. that involve teams either just above, in, or just below this bracket projection. What does that mean? There will be a new one in the evening, probably right around 11:30 p.m. or so assuming the Baylor vs. Oklahoma State game ends on time, as that’s the last one with a real impact. (But as many as four 9 p.m. games could impact the bracket.) To that end, watch out for more auto-bid stealers. Louisiana Tech and Long Beach St. both play late tomorrow night in their respective quarterfinals. Norfolk State’s quick boot from the MEAC tournament shows anything can happen. Continue reading “NIT Bracketology: Mid-Week Update” →

NOTE: You can always find the latest NIT Bracketology at the top here

I wanted to give an update of the bracket heading into the weekend. What you’ll find here are some minor adjustments to the bracket that I presented last Sunday. After the final weekend of regular season play there will be an updated bracket on Sunday night and then I would expect some regular updates during Championship Week’s second week.

This will especially need to be updated because of automatic bids procured by top seeds that lose in their conference tournaments. Miraculously that hasn’t happened yet, but the weekend brings even more opportunities for auto bids to go down. Some other big NIT games on Friday include: Illinois State vs. Northern Iowa, Eastern Kentucky vs. Murray State and Indiana State vs. Evansville.

Continue reading “NIT Bracketology: Heading Into the Weekend” →

NOTE: NIT Bracketology is updated daily now. You can find the latest here.

Championship fortnight is here! The best four weekends of the college basketball season are upon us. The next two weeks will be pressure packed with teams trying to get into the postseason and then we’ll get two excellent weekends of action. Continue reading “NIT Bracketology: Championship Week” →

NOTE: Bracketology is updated each Sunday (sometimes more). You can always find the most recent bracket here.

The weird thing with NIT bracketology as compared with its NCAA sibling is that we don’t know the automatic bids until (and even up to) Selection Sunday. When top seeds of mid-major conferences lose the auto-bids pile up, usually between 8-10 a season, but sometimes as many as 12. Continue reading “NIT Bracketology: Bubble Stealers We Await Your Coming” →

NOTE: The latest NIT Bracketology can always be found from the top link here. It is updated every Sunday.

Injuries are hitting teams hard this season. Whether it’s Kentucky losing Nerlens Noel for the season or Providence playing the early part of the season without Vincent Council (including the Penn State and Boston College losses) there are injuries popping up all over this week’s NIT bracket. Continue reading “NIT Bracketology: Hurting Your Chances” →

While I’ll only be updating my bracket weekly, it’s that time of year again and worth tracking what teams are doing on a nightly basis. On night where there are lots of games (Wednesday and Thursday mostly), I’ll be looking at the teams that helped and hurt themselves for the NIT (and NCAA) bubble. Continue reading “NIT Update: Wednesday, Feb. 13” →