The Battle for #66

Every year 32 lucky and some not so lucky teams get the privilege to play for the National Invitation Tournament title. The 2008 NIT is already down to just eight teams as STF has called on me, an avid follower of Syracuse athletics and a college basketball enthusiast subjected to watching his team in the NIT for the second straight year.

This year Clemson, Mississippi State, and 2007 NIT champion West Virginia took the experience they gained in the 2007 NIT and turned it into four NCAA tournament wins so far. This year the one seeds, Arizona State, Virginia Tech, Syracuse, and Ohio State will look to do the same and turn 2008 NIT experience into 2009 NCAA tournament success. For now, I'll take a look at what went wrong for each of the quarterfinalists' seasons that sent them to the NIT.

ESPN has an "elite" eight doubleheader tonight:

UMASS vs. Syracuse 7:00 PM

Florida vs. Arizona St 9:00 PM

Why they were banished to the NIT:

Syracuse: The ‘Cuse lost its two best shooters to torn ACLs (Eric Devendorf and Andy Rautins), the lone four year senior left team (Josh Wright), and lost four seniors from last year’s team, but it added five freshmen and a Belgian JUCO transfer with a center coming off knee surgery, and a 6’3’’ guard/forward that’s the best rebounder on the team, but is still searching for his role and you get Syracuse. SU was probably one Big East Tournament win away from going to the real dance; instead, the Orange meet UMASS for the second time this year in the NIT Elite Eight.

UMASS: The Minutemen compiled an 11-3 non-conference record, picking up big wins against Syracuse and Houston. UMASS didn’t follow it up in A-10 play falling to 4-6 in conference. UMASS did end on a six game winning streak mainly against the bottom feeders of the A-10. Like Syracuse, they lost their first conference tournament game and found themselves in the NIT.

Arizona St.: Illinois thumped the Sun Devils to the start season, but ASU followed that by going 14-2 to open the season. ASU struggled the rest of the way, finishing just 9-9 in the PAC-10 after a 4-0 start. A common theme so far: ASU also lost their first conference tournament game and finishing with a 19-12 record. ASU thought their resume would still be strong enough to go dancing after pounding Xaiver, Arizona twice, Stanford, and USC, but an RPI of 83 has the Sun Devils playing in the NIT.

Florida: The 2008 Gators are the epitome of the old cliche, "what a difference a year makes." UF enters the quarterfinals of the NIT on a 14 game post-season winning streak, unfortunately for Billy Donovan the first 12 are in the NCAA tournament and the last two come in this year's NIT. This year's "Baby Gators" (count them seven freshmen and three sophomores) complied an 8-8 record in the SEC, but a terrible non-conference schedule inflated Florida's overall record of 21-10. Florida's inexperience showed in the second half of the SEC schedule as the Gators lost 7 of 10 games to end the season.

Tomorrow I'll take a look at the other four NIT quarterfinalists: Virginia Tech, Ohio State, Dayton, and Ole Miss.

One last note: Don't Google Image Search NIT when looking for the NIT logo, you won't enjoy what comes up. Search National Invitation Tournament is a much better idea.