Building off of yesterday's post and some additional information that has since come to light, here's a table looking at potential College Basketball Invitational and College Insider Tournament teams.
NIT-ology and The NIT Bracket Project have not been updated for Saturday, March 13th, so some of the teams listed may be bumped up to the National Invitational Tournament's 32 school field.
The Tigers' RPI remains steady at 132 on Saturday.
Marshall 20-9 (65) CIT home game VCU 22-9 (66) Illinois State 22-10 (75)South Carolina 15-16 (94)Appalachian State 20-11 (101) CIT home gameBradley 16-15 (104)Ohio 19-14 (105)Georgia 14-17 (106)Wisconsin Green Bay 19-12 (109)USC 16-14 (110)Northern Colorado 23-7 (113) Southern Miss. 16-13 (114) Creighton 16-15 (116) CIT home game Colorado 13-16 (117) Colorado State 15-15 (119) Boston College 15-16 (120) Iowa State 15-17 (123) Virginia 15-16 (125)Michigan 14-17 (129)Western Kentucky 21-13 (131) Princeton 20-8 (132) Oregon 16-16 (137) Western Michigan 17-14 (142) Hofstra 18-14 (146)Nebraska 15-18 (148)George Mason 17-14 (158) CIT home game South Dakota 17-9 (222) Great West finals Houston Baptist 12-20 (327) Great West finals
Creighton, George Mason and Appalachian State have all announced they'll host three of the CIT's eight home games next week. Marshall has a conditional deal to play their first three CIT games at home if they don't get an NIT bid. A fifth CIT bid will go to the Great West tournament champion, either South Dakota or Houston Baptist.
That leaves 11 slots, one of which could go to Princeton. In an interview with Defiantly Dutch, CIT Selection Committee member Rich Zvosec explains how this tournament selects their field.
Some of his answers favor a "mid-major" team on the rise like the Tigers.
Last year the inaugural year, Old Dominion, obviously out of the Colonial, won the tournament. This year, they used that as a springboard [to the NCAAs]. That’s the whole premise.
About 10 days ago, everybody on the committee sent a tentative list—obviously not final, because you have to wait for conference tournaments to play out—and then it’s kind of a wait and see what happens with the tournaments, because of the change in the NCAA where a regular season champion that doesn’t get an at-large and doesn’t win their conference tournament automatically goes to the NIT. That helps Hofstra, because that’s [a number of conferences] that would have been prime candidates to [send] the second place team.
Right now, Hofstra is on the board. And what plays into their favor—obviously, 19 wins helps, they have a winning record in the conference, their best players are returning. So that all is in their favor. And then what will happen now is there’s a couple other teams that are on the board that are also on the bubble for the NIT. So basically, what will happen now is as soon as the NIT pairings come out, then we’ll have another conference call and kind of hash it out with the people on the committee.
Hmmm.
20 wins.
Springboard to the NCAAs next season.
Strong conference record.
Top five scorers returning.
Sound like anyone you know?
Zvosec goes on to say that regional matchups are preferred, which gives Princeton a better chance of seeing an Iona or a Fairfield if either are overlooked by the NIT.
Defiantly Dutch also looked at other CIT candidates yesterday, mentioning Princeton on his list.
VCU has been in contact with representatives for both tournaments, so I am adding them to the table.
Colorado State has been told they're "very high up on [each tournament's] board."
Western Michigan is on the CIT bubble according to tournament chairman Riley Wallace.
Six teams are crossed off above. Nebraska, Georgia and Bradley will almost certainly not accept postseason bids. Michigan has no interest in playing outside of the NIT. Same with South Carolina. USC is ineligible for postseason play.
