Six Left in the Fight for #66

Two quarterfinal games last night trimmed the NIT field from eight teams down to six. The regional finals in Syracuse and Arizona State both produced upsets as the Orange and Sun Devils lost. Tonight features a battle for the state of Ohio as The Ohio State Buckeyes face the Dayton Flyers. The other quarterfinal pits Virginia Tech up against Ole Miss.



What happened last night:

UMASS 82 Syracuse 77: The Orange led this game basically from start to finish; unfortunately for the Orange, the game isn't 39 minutes long or else SU would be going to Madison Square Garden. UMASS trailed SU by 22 points in the second half, but the Minutemen went bonkers from deep the rest of the way. UMASS hit nine threes over the remaining 14 minutes in one of the fastest track meets I've ever witnessed. UMASS got up and down the court faster than the Phoenix Suns or Golden State Warriors could. With that said, UMASS took the lead with under a minute to play and the rest was history. UMASS takes on the winner of...



Florida 70 Arizona State 57: The second one seed of the day went down in Tempe after the Baby Gators put together an impressive 20-7 run to end the game after being tied at 50. Florida picks up their 15th straight postseason win in a row. UF got a balanced attack as five players scored in double digits. This game may have been the last for ASU freshman guard James Harden. The frosh says he wants to come back for another year, but there is speculation he might go pro. Florida shot a blistering 60.5% and only turned the ball over 12 times.



Tonight's Quarterfinal Action:

Ole Miss vs. Virginia Tech 7 PM on ESPN

Dayton vs. Ohio State 9 PM on ESPN



How they ended up in the NIT:

Ole Miss: The Rebels are generally considered this year's Clemson Tigers. They went undefeated in non-conference play, but when the SEC season hit, the proverbial crap hit the fan. Mississippi fell to 4-9 in the conference, but finished with three straight wins to get back on the bubble with a 7-9 conference record. A first round loss in the SEC tournament meant Ole Miss would be fighting to become number 66.



Virginia Tech: The Hokies considered themselves one of the biggest snubs overall, but their regular season had some blaring problems. Losses to Penn State, Old Dominion, and Richmond as well as losses to 2008 ACC bottom dwellers NCST and Georgia Tech left V-Tech with a lot of bad losses. The Hokies' next problem, they didn't beat anybody in the RPI top 50. Finally a bubble team won a conference tournament game as the Hokies beat Miami in round one, but succumbed to UNC in the ACC semifinals.



Dayton: The Flyers were riding high at 14-1 with big wins over Big East powerhouses PITT and Louisville. Injuries to key players left Dayton struggling to get through a very strong Atlantic-10 schedule. The Flyers fell to 5-8 in conference before winning four in a row including a first round conference tournament victory. Dayton lost to Xavier in the second round of the A-10 tournament. Dayton's 32nd ranked RPI and quality wins weren't enough in the selection committee's eyes to let them go dancing in the big dance.



Ohio State: The Buckeyes did everything they thought they needed to do down the stretch to go dancing by beating Purdue and Michigan State to end the regular season. OSU finished 10-8 in conference and had an RPI in upper 40s. The committee wasn't able to look past bad conference losses to Iowa and Michigan and a blowout loss at the hands of Texas A&M in the Preseason NIT Championship game.