Unifying effort: Tennessee's schedule

[iSASO]

From the Andy Katz ranking:

Power-rating push: The Vols could get to New York for the NIT Season Tip-Off against the likes of North Carolina, Gonzaga and Indiana. They also will play Memphis.

Now why is it that UTenn is in this and WSU had to take a last-minute trip to Syracuse to salvage its schedule?

Didn't WSU prove something against UT a few months ago?

Where's Creighton or SIU? Maybe they both turned it down because there was no return game. I guarantee WSU didn't turn it down. Maybe the Vegas Tourney is the only reason WSU wasn't invited...or maybe not.

[MSNSaluki]

From what I've been told, SIU has never been interested in the preseason NIT because of how your have to arrange the schedule. It's a pain in the ***.

If you lose the first game, you conceiveably could have almost two weeks off before your next game because you have to have the slots available should you advance.

Of course, everybody who plays in the tournament faces the same dilemna but SIU simply doesn't want the hassle.

[SiuCubFan8]

From the Andy Katz ranking:

Power-rating push: The Vols could get to New York for the NIT Season Tip-Off against the likes of North Carolina, Gonzaga and Indiana. They also will play Memphis.

Now why is it that UTenn is in this and WSU had to take a last-minute trip to Syracuse to salvage its schedule?

Didn't WSU prove something against UT a few months ago?

Where's Creighton or SIU? Maybe they both turned it down because there was no return game. I guarantee WSU didn't turn it down. Maybe the Vegas Tourney is the only reason WSU wasn't invited...or maybe not.

How could SIU play in this and the Orlando tournament?
I am sure SIU and many other teams like the guaranteed games they get in the tournaments rather than the NIT.

[TrueBlueJay]

From what I've been told, SIU has never been interested in the preseason NIT because of how your have to arrange the schedule. It's a pain in the ***.

If you lose the first game, you conceiveably could have almost two weeks off before your next game because you have to have the slots available should you advance.

Of course, everybody who plays in the tournament faces the same dilemna but SIU simply doesn't want the hassle.

I've heard the exact same thing about CU. Not saying they were invited, but I've heard they wouldn't be interested.

[blueblood]

Since both CU and SIU are in preseason tourneys they BOTH could not play in the NIT. Thus either ISASO doesn't know what he was talking about or he was not trying to unite but rather to divide. Which is it?

[MSNSaluki]

I'm not talking about THIS YEAR's preseason NIT.

I'm talking about the tournament in general. Also, why would SIU or Creighton or Wichita State or Missouri State or any Valley school commit to an event where you are guaranteed 1 game when you can go to Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico or Padre Island and be guaranteed 3 games.

I'd still like to see a Valley team show the balls to play in the preseason NIT but I totally understand any reservations league schools have.

[outpost]

Last time the Shockers played in this preseason tourney, they had a home game in the first round against Guy Lewis and the Houston Cougars.....probably in the early 1990's. Exciting game, but WSU lost by one point.

If VT had been in existence back then, Cohen would've probably been chastised for choosing to play the wrong people, play the wrong defense, or have the wrong guy take the wrong final shot. :no:

The real problem was that we had the wrong coach.

[Fraydog]

Playing in Madison Square Garden, the World's Most Famous Arena, would be an awesome thing for our program... but only if it's an eight-team tournament and we get three guaranteed games in New York. I'd love to see a preseason NIT crown be added to our NIT title... but it ain't happening unless the NCAA (the new owners of the NIT) change the format. If they want 16 teams in, I say they play a pre-season NIT at Thanksgiving and a mid-season one at Christmas break, giving all 16 teams three games on the floor of MSG. Besides, Christmas in NYC would be sweet. :lol: :banana:

[UE-BBALL#1]

Evansville was in the preseason NIT in the late 90s I think. Somehow after beating Drexel in Evansville we got to host Iona, who upset whichever team was supposed to be good from our bracket. We beat Iona at home and got to play at MSG on ESPN. Even better for Evansville was that we got to play against Indiana in the semi-finals. IU of course was expected to stop us, but we hit a shot with a few seconds to go and had a 1 point lead. I'll never forget that feeling when IU hit the shot at the buzzer to win the game. That would have been a huge win for UE, but instead of getting a shot at Duke in the championship we had to get beat by Tulsa in the consolation instead. Oh well.:aces:

[outpost]

I remember a little bit about that game between UE and IU in MSG.

Near-miss for the Valley.

[MSU Bleeds Maroon]

Where's Creighton or SIU? Maybe they both turned it down because there was no return game. I guarantee WSU didn't turn it down. Maybe the Vegas Tourney is the only reason WSU wasn't invited...or maybe not.

As has been alluded, teams can only enter one exempt tournament in a season. Participation in the Las Vegas tournament excludes the Shockers from participation in the pNIT.

[MSU Bleeds Maroon]

I'm not talking about THIS YEAR's preseason NIT.

I'm talking about the tournament in general. Also, why would SIU or Creighton or Wichita State or Missouri State or any Valley school commit to an event where you are guaranteed 1 game when you can go to Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico or Padre Island and be guaranteed 3 games.

I'd still like to see a Valley team show the balls to play in the preseason NIT but I totally understand any reservations league schools have.

The Bears participated in the pNIT in the 1998-99 season. The first game was a road win over the Cheating Kittens of UM-Columbia; the Bears were then rewarded with a trip to top-5 Stanford, where the maroon-clad visitors got their clocks cleaned.

The RPI boost from those two games was enough to eventually earn the Bears an at-large bid, despite winning neither the conference title nor the tournament crown. The moral of the story: if the competition is good enough, game quality might outweigh game quantity in deciding which tournament to shoot for.