UCLA gets to play Temple tonight. That in itself is unusual.
But then you realize it’s November, and the game is at
Pauley, which is what makes tonight’s basketball game that
much more special and surprising.
Big-name programs don’t typically play each other in
November. Especially before Thanksgiving. November is supposed to
be a month to schedule a bunch of cupcakes and pad your
team’s record.
But that’s what makes the National Invitation Tournament
so great.
It gets better too. If UCLA beats Temple, the Bruins will go to
the semifinals of the NIT Season Tip-Off in New York and get a
chance to play against big-name teams such as Duke, Alabama,
Memphis or Seton Hall.
Yes, all still in November, more than a month before conference
play begins.
Just look at who UCLA played in November last year: Chicago
State, Western Illinois, UC Irvine and Long Beach State. Yawn. And
this is true of most big-name programs, not just UCLA.
But with tournaments such as the NIT Season Tip-Off, college
basketball fans can actually see good games in November, at the
start of the season.
The long-term future of the NIT Season Tip-Off (which was called
the preseason NIT up until this year) may be in doubt, however,
because of the other NIT, which takes place in the postseason at
the same time as the NCAA Tournament.
Back in August, a lawsuit was settled between the NCAA and the
Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association, the
organization that then controlled the NIT (both preseason and
postseason).
The MIBA sued the NCAA for antitrust violations since it felt
that the NCAA had an unfair advantage requiring all of the teams it
invited to compete in the NCAA Tournament.
While the MIBA’s reasoning may seem ludicrous (and it
mostly is), keep in mind that back in the early days of college
basketball, the postseason NIT was more prestigious than the NCAA
Tournament.
So as part of the settlement, the NCAA bought the rights and
control of both the preseason and postseason NIT from the MIBA.
Immediately, this set off a lot of speculation that the NIT
would no longer exist, but the NCAA has vowed to keep both the
preseason and postseason NIT until the terms of its TV contract
with ESPN end in the 2009-2010 season. The NCAA has said nothing
about the future of the NIT after that, however.
It’s great that the NCAA is keeping the tournaments intact
for the near future, as both serve a purpose in college basketball.
But both tournaments should stick around forever.
Even the much-maligned postseason NIT has its merit.
The postseason NIT rewards teams that had good years but
weren’t good enough to make it to March Madness.
In a sport with 334 teams, only the top 65 make it to the NCAA
Tournament, leaving plenty of other good teams out there. And these
teams get to develop their young players, give their seniors one
last game to compete in and possibly play in front of home
crowds.
That’s right ““ games in the first three rounds of
the postseason NIT (and the first two rounds of the NIT Season
Tip-Off) are played on the home courts of the schools that are
competing (unlike the NCAA Tournament), meaning less teams have to
travel and for those that do, the tournament has usually been set
up so teams travel as close as possible.
That’s another reason why the NIT Season Tip-Off is so
great.
These games are being played at the schools themselves ““
not like other early season tournaments such as the EA SPORTS Maui
Invitational or the Great Alaska Shootout.
Tonight, UCLA and Temple are playing at Pauley Pavilion, not at
some other random city. UCLA played New Mexico State on Tuesday in
the first round at Pauley, and New Mexico State was only forced to
travel to its nearest possible first-round road site.
The home-court advantage isn’t a guaranteed win either.
Sam Houston State won at Missouri and Drexel won at Princeton in
first-round games earlier in the week.
And the last four teams standing get to play at Madison Square
Garden in New York City, one of the most storied basketball arenas
in the country.
While it pales in comparison to the NCAA Tournament in March,
the NIT Season Tip-Off does give a nice tournament feel in
November.
Hopefully, both the NIT Season Tip-Off and the postseason NIT
stick around for a long time. Especially the NIT Season Tip-Off. As
much fun as it is to watch UCLA pummel the Delaware States and
Wagners of the world, I like to see the occasional November game
against a formidable opponent.
Quiñonez masochistically enjoys watching Steve Lavin as
an ESPN analyst. E-mail Quiñonez at
gquinonez@media.edu.