Tag: Cincinnati

2012 NIT Bracket from BPI

Here is the second edition of the NIT bracket using Drew Cannon’s BPI. I want to note a few things. Here are auto-bids by teams that you might be wondering where they are:

  • Iona (MAAC auto, would’ve been the final at-large according to BPI)
  • Akron (MAC auto, would’ve been in NIT)
  • Murray State (OVC auto, would’ve been in NIT)
  • Oral Roberts (Summit auto, would’ve been in NIT)
  • VCU (CAA auto, would’ve been in NIT)
  • Davidson (Southern auto, would’ve been in NIT)
  • Cleveland St. (Horizon auto, would’ve been in NIT)
  • Wagner (NEC auto, would be the 12th team into the NIT)
Final four teams into NCAA via at-large: Northwestern ($), Minnesota, Arizona and Saint Joseph’s
Now that we’ve got that out of the way. Here is the bracket. Note: As I did the last time I preserved the S-curve so there are match ups here that don’t make sense or would be reseeded. What it does mean though is that the ones are the top four teams into the NIT, the twos the next four etc. Hopefully this is informative. I’ll have a fully human authored and seeded bracket on Thursday.

1. Xavier
8. Tennessee
4. Colorado
5. LSU
3. Cincinnati
6. New Mexico State
2. South Dakota State
7. Dayton

1. Wyoming
8. Mercer
4. UCF
5. Oregon
3. Colorado State
6. Stanford
2. Drexel
7. Buffalo

1. Mississippi State
8. Virginia Tech
4. Pittsburgh
5. St. Bonaventure
3. Marshall
6. South Florida
2. La Salle
7. UCLA

1. Northern Iowa
8. Denver
4. Missouri State
5. Arkansas
3. Massachusetts
6. Mississippi
2. Washington
7. Villanova

To be honest. This is a pretty nice and quite reasonable bracket. The first four teams left out are: Montana, Tulsa, Kent State and Duquesne. There are good match ups throughout the bracket and an intriguing potential second regional final between Xavier and Cincinnati. My guess is that a couple of these would get flipped in a true NIT bracket, for instance Arkansas would host Missouri State, South Florida would host Marshall, Stanford would host Colorado State, etc. but it seems like the right teams are getting in. It’s also worth noting that there is an 11-13 Villanova team somewhat safely into the field. It’s crazy, but the Wildcats are sitting right around the NIT bubble.

SGOTW: Xavier at Fordham

This week’s Saturday Game of the Week takes us to Rose Hill where Fordham has had a lot of success lately. The Rams have won three straight home games against Texas State, Georgia Tech and Harvard. While they lost a tough one at Massachusetts on Thursday, it served as reminder to the Atlantic 10 that Tom Pecora’s squad should be competitive in the conference this season, even if they are really young. Competitive is nice, but wins are better and that’s the opportunity that the reeling Musketeers coming to Rose Hill presents. If Fordham can pull off the upset (and to be clear, it would certainly still be an upset) the Rams will have another quality win under their belt, and maybe have another New York Times feature on the way.

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