Tuesday, March 13, 2012

The College Basketball Blog: 2012 NIT Predictions

2012 National Invitation Tournament (NIT) Predictions

The NIT is the most respected of the additional tournaments. It’s not really fair to say that it was the original extra tournament because for many years it existed alongside the NCAA Tournament without being considered inferior, and in fact at one time it was considered superior in some ways. Eventually it became a tourney for also-rans, with the long standing joke being that the NIT stood for “Not-in-the-Tournament.”

Today, the NIT is a 32-team tournament played at home sites until the national semifinals and finals, which are played in New York City. Unlike the CBI and CIT, the NIT has a full bracket from start to finish which mirrors the NCAA tournament bracket except that there are only 32 teams instead of 64.

While the CIT and CBI compete directly against each other for teams, the NIT gets first dibs once the NCAA field has been set, and any of the teams from major conferences who saw their bubbles burst will end up in the NIT. One recent change made certain that any regular season conference champ who missed out on the Big Dance would get an invite to the NIT. Thus, the NIT contains bubble teams from BCS conferences and high major conferences, along with some of the best mid-majors not included in March Madness.

The only thing I have added to the NIT bracket is titles to the different regions for clarity purposes. One final note: for the 2nd year in a row, Dayton will have to play on the road in the first round in the NIT due to the fact that their home site will be hosting the play-in games of the NCAA tournament. Here are my picks.


First Round


Midwest

#1 Washington over #8 Texas-Arlington

#2 Dayton over #7 Iowa

#3 Oregon over #6 LSU

#4 Northwestern over #5 Akron


Southeast

#1 Tennessee over #8 Savannah State

#2 Miami over #7 Valparaiso

#3 LaSalle over #6 Minnesota

#4 Middle Tennessee State over #5 Marshall


Northeast

#1 Seton Hall over #8 Stony Brook

#2 St. Joseph’s over #7 Northern Iowa

#3 Drexel over #6 Central Florida

#4 Mississippi State over #5 Massachusetts


West

#1 Arizona over #8 Bucknell

#2 Mississippi over #7 Illinois State

#3 Stanford over #6 Cleveland State

#4 Oral Roberts over #5 Nevada


Second Round


Midwest

#1 Washington over #4 Northwestern

#3 Oregon over #2 Dayton


Southeast

#4 Middle Tennessee State over #1 Tennessee

#2 Miami over #3 LaSalle


Northeast

#1 Seton Hall over #4 Mississippi State

#2 St. Joseph’s over #3 Drexel


West

#1 Arizona over #4 Oral Roberts

#2 Mississippi over #3 Stanford


Third Round


Midwest

#1 Washington over #3 Oregon


Southeast

#2 Miami over #4 Middle Tennessee State


Northeast

#1 Seton Hall over #2 St. Joseph’s


West

#1 Arizona over #2 Mississippi


Semifinals

#1 Washington over #2 Miami

#1 Seton Hall over #1 Arizona


Finals

#1 Washington over #1 Seton Hall


So those are my predictions for the 2012 NIT. Here’s a list of the conferences represented in this year’s NIT (ranked by conference RPI ranking), along with the teams from each conference (RPI listed for each team in parenthesis). That list is followed by this year’s NIT field of 32, listed by RPI rank.


2012 NIT Conference Breakdown

#1 Big Ten (3) [Northwestern (60); Minnesota (89); Iowa (130)]

#2 Big East (1) [Seton Hall (61)]

#4 SEC (4) [Mississippi (58); Mississippi State (73); LSU (81); Tennessee (86)]

#6 ACC (1) [Miami (59)]

#7 A-10 (4) [St. Joe’s (67); UMass (75); Dayton (79); LaSalle (83)]

#8 MVC (2) [Northern Iowa (72); Illinois State (102)]

#9 C-USA (2) [Marshall (43); Central Florida (54)]

#10 Pac-12 (4) [Oregon (62); Washington (70); Arizona (76); Stanford (96)]

#12 WAC (1) [Nevada (69)]

#14 Horizon (2) [Cleveland State (85); Valpo (97)]

#15 CAA (1) [Drexel (64)]

#16 Summit (1) [Oral Roberts (55)]

#18 MAC (1) [Akron (57)]

#19 SBC (1) [Middle Tennessee State (56)]

#22 Patriot (1) [Bucknell (90)]

#27 Southland (1) [Tex-Arlington (111)]

#29 America East (1) [Stony Brook (156)]

#30 MEAC (1) [Savannah State (191)]


2012 NIT Field-of-32 by RPI Ranking

#43 Marshall

#54 Central Florida

#55 Oral Roberts

#56 Middle Tennessee State

#57 Akron

#58 Mississippi State

#59 Miami

#60 Northwestern

#61 Seton Hall

#62 Oregon

#64 Drexel

#67 St. Joseph’s

#69 Nevada

#70 Washington

#72 Northern Iowa

#73 Mississippi State

#75 Massachusetts

#76 Arizona

#79 Dayton

#81 LSU

#83 LaSalle

#85 Cleveland State

#86 Tennessee

#89 Minnesota

#90 Bucknell

#96 Stanford

#97 Valparaiso

#102 Illinois State

#111 Texas-Arlington

#130 Iowa

#156 Stony Brook

#191 Savannah State

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