Posted on 03/17/2009 6:06:05 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
This is the first year for the tournament. I couldn’t find anything in the Times – no brackets, no seedings, no analysis, no expert predictions. I have corrected the first of these deficiencies below so at least you all can get those office pools started. I will report back tomorrow with first round results.
>> Maybe not. It might have been the reverse of today in that the NIT was the more prestigous tournament and the NCAA was a consolation prize. The NIT got way more coverage in the paper. <<
You’re right... it was. The NIT, IIRC, was much a bigger field, and was therefore considered the greater conquest. But maybe the NCAAs focused on getting conference champs?
The men's tournament originally consisted of only 6 teams, which later expanded to 8 teams in 1941, 12 teams in 1949, 14 teams in 1965, 16 teams in 1968, 24 teams in 1979, 32 teams in 1980, and 40 teams from 2002 through 2006. The tournament reverted to 32 teams for 2007.So I guess there were two reasons for the decline of the NIT: the eventual near ubiquity of conference play, and the NCAA's expansion to "at-large" teams.In the tournaments' early years, the NIT often drew the nation's best collegiate basketball teams for several reasons. First, there was limited national media coverage of college basketball, therefore playing in "The Big Apple" provided tremendous media exposure for the team and players. This allowed players hoping for a shot at the NBA an opportunity to play before scouts for the largely east coast dominated league. The media exposure also allowed coaches to recruit better basketball players.
Second, the NCAA was originally a tournament among conference winners. Thus, the slots were filled by automatic qualifiers from little known conferences. However, many major universities such as Marquette, Notre Dame, DePaul, and Dayton did not belong to a conference.
Thinking today, which would be the better draw: what would have been the NIT teams: Xavier, Pittsburgh, Connecticut, North Carolina, Kansas, Oklahoma, Washington, Michigan St., etc...
or what would have been the NCAA teams: Temple, Louisville, Purdue, Duke, USC, Mississippi St., etc.,
Now think of the "secondary teams" in each tournament. The NIT would have Marquette, Syracuse, Tennessee, Dayton, etc.
But the NCAA would have American, Chattanooga, Stephen F. Austin, Alabama St., North Dakota St., Robert Morris, Northern Iowa, Akron, Cleveland St., etc...
I don’t think that will work. Wrong teams, wrong locations, wrong year.
GO TIGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Royal) blue heaven in Atlanta:
All in fun meandog...Carolina's a great program. :)
We’re bringing the war BACK HOME!
Where it ought to have beeeeen before!
AND THE CROWD GOES WILD!!!! DA DA TADA DA DA DA DA TADA, DA DA DA TADA TADA... GREAT CEASAR’S GHOST! HEEEEEERE COME THE TIGERS!
Tell everyone in MEM, we have TIGERS in CA too! BIG SMILE
Happy St. Patrick’s day!
Kelly
Will do. Thanks. Always good to find more Memphis Tigers!
Have a great week, and a wonderful tournament. God Bless.
We can go on for days! I think I have every FT album/CD ever recorded. They’ve been going strong for 40 years and have no equal, but then again, everything I know is wrong...
No doubt. Just to your last, for instance:
everything I know is wrong...
which could be a problem because in the next world, you’re on your own.
The last of theirs I have is Just Folks: A Fireside Chat. I have everything up to that point, of course, even The Tale of the Giant Rat of Sumatra (which we tried to alter into a school-parodying effort at UCDavis).
Hoping for a UConn ( alma mater ) - Memphis showdown !
But with Jerome Dyson out for the year I’d have to give the edge to the Tigers in that matchup .
OK I’ll go ahead and say it. I lie Morehead tonight. I mean I don’t understand how anyone could be against Morehead.
My 1st round upset special is Cleveland State over Wake Forest. ALso I like Western Kentucky over Illinois since Illinois is missing their top player.
Who do you like in the Villanova-Brown game?
Come on now Brown didn’t make it.
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