The NIT isn\u2019t where college basketball teams want to be at the end of the season in March, but the tournament allows players to play and coaches to coach. Winning the NIT can be a springboard for a team into the following season, enabling that group to make the NCAA Tournament one year later. It\u2019s a tournament in which motivation is a central factor. Teams show whether they really care or not in the NIT, so a good part of this process is determining which teams are going to be especially hungry to play and win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1 \u2013 Vanderbilt Commodores<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Commodores had a bad regular season which fell well short of expectations, but they showed at the SEC Tournament that they do have a lot of talent and can potentially build for the future. This team and coach Jerry Stackhouse have a lot to prove, so that could catapult them through the NIT bracket. Vanderbilt plays Belmont in the first round. Belmont suffered a stinging loss to Morehead State in the Ohio Valley Tournament and might not recover. If Vanderbilt can get by Belmont, it would play either Dayton or Toledo. Dayton is the higher seed, but Toledo will host Dayton because the Flyers\u2019 home arena is used for the First Four games, part of the NCAA Tournament. If Toledo, playing at home, beats Dayton, Vanderbilt would host Toledo in the second round and could make its way through the early rounds of the bracket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2 \u2013 Oklahoma Sooners<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Sooners seemed completely out of the running for the NCAA Tournament but then won four games in a row to make a push toward the bracket. They lost by one point to Texas Tech in the semifinals of the Big 12 Tournament by failing to get off a shot in the final seconds. Had Oklahoma scored in those final seconds and won, the Sooners would have made the NCAA Tournament field. They were the second team out as noted by the selection committee on Sunday after the brackets were revealed. Oklahoma will be disappointed to not make the NCAA Tournament, but this is a scrappy team which frankly overachieved to get so close to the NCAA tourney. This is a team which has played better over the past three weeks and will be excited to play in the NIT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3 \u2013 Washington State<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Cougars lost a ton of close games this season, which is why they didn\u2019t make the NCAA Tournament. Washington State is not a high-level program used to annual success, so coach Kyle Smith can use this tournament as a motivational tool and a building block for next season. Washington State has a lot of value to gain from playing in the NIT. SMU is the highest seed in Washington State\u2019s part of the bracket. The Mustangs are bitterly disappointed after missing the NCAAs, and they might not be as motivated as Washington State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4 \u2013 Wake Forest<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Demon Deacons rose from obscurity this year after several poor seasons. Coach Steve Forbes lifted this team to the doorstep of the NCAA Tournament. Wake Forest came up just short, but since Wake Forest is not used to playing postseason basketball, the NIT carries freshness and will feel like an opportunity rather than a chore. Teams which look at the NIT as a positive event and not a consolation tournament usually do very well, especially if they are higher seeds with home games. Wake should get good crowds for its first two games and can work its way into the semifinals. Then the Demon Deacons can go all the way and lift the trophy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The NIT isn\u2019t where college basketball teams want to be at the end of the season in March, but the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":16031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[135],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaab"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21725"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21727,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21725\/revisions\/21727"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}