Wednesday, March 12, 2014

3/12 NIT projections

I'll present my entire NIT S-Curve in linear form, to tell you where I see things standing:

Bubble teams not in NCAA field (11 spots):
California (19-12)
Minnesota (18-12)
Providence (20-11)
Southern Miss (24-5)
St John's (20-11)
Missouri (21-10)
Florida St (18-12)
West Virginia (17-14)
Green Bay (21-6)
Georgetown (17-14)
Utah (19-10)

NIT autobids (8 spots, would be 9 but I listed Green Bay above):
FGCU (20-12)
Belmont (23-9)
High Point (14-14)
Vermont (20-10)
Davidson (19-12)
Boston (24-10)
Iona (22-10)
Robert Morris (21-13)

Off the NCAA bubble, but are NIT locks.  I just can't see these teams missing (7 teams):
Clemson (19-11)
LSU (18-12)
Georgia (18-12)
Illinois (18-13)
North Carolina St (19-12)
Maryland (16-14)
Toledo (25-5)

NIT bubble.  Right now I have 15 teams for 6 spots for the bubble:
Indiana (17-14)
Marquette (17-14)
St Mary's (21-11)
Richmond (18-13)
Indiana St (21-10)
Washington (17-15)
---cutline---
Boise St (18-12)
San Francisco (19-11)
Middle Tennessee (21-8)
New Mexico St (22-9)
Ole Miss (18-13)
UNLV (19-12)
Oregon St (16-15)
Tulsa (18-12)
Ohio (20-10)
(I just can't see any possible case for any team past this)

I define bid poaching as a situation where an at-large NIT bid disappears because a team jumps from no postseason (or a CBI/CIT bid) to a NCAA or NIT bid.

Conference tournaments where bid poaching can definitely happen (6):
Big Sky, Big West, MEAC, Southland, Sun Belt, WAC

Conference tournaments where bid poaching might or might not happen (2):
CUSA (if Southern Miss or La Tech win, no bid poaching will happen.  Anyone else, bid poaching happens)
MAC (same as CUSA, but with Western Michigan and Toledo instead)

Other conference tournaments are the big boy ones and would require massive upsets to be a bid poaching situation.

Bracketed version (geography is still a bit rough, I can't find easy solutions to some of these.  I'll probably try harder to make everything fit in my Sunday projections)
1) California vs. 8) High Point
4) Illinois vs. 5) Marquette
3) Green Bay vs. 6) Washington
2) Missouri vs. 7) Belmont

1) Minnesota vs. 8) Robert Morris
4) LSU vs. 5) North Carolina St
3) Clemson vs. 6) Indiana St
2) St John's vs. 7) Boston

1) Providence vs. 8) Vermont
4) Toledo vs. 5) Indiana
3) Utah vs. 6) St Mary's
2) West Virginia vs. 7) Iona

1) Southern Miss vs. 8) Davidson
4) Georgia vs. 5) Maryland
3) Georgetown vs. 6) Richmond
2) Florida St vs. 7) FGCU

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