NIT?

Seattle is clearly playing its best basketball of the season after another impressive win last night over UC Davis. Pulling their record to .500 now sharpens the focus on post season play possibilities. We know that Seattle is not eligible for the NCAA tournament so that can be crossed off the list immediately. The goal from the very beginning of the season has been the NIT. However, this is a tough year to pry into the selective 32- team field. I have replicated the projected 32-team field courtesy of www.nitology.com . The projections were posted the 11th and although substantial change can happen in just one week, they suit our purposes just fine.

1-Seeds

Charlotte
Cincinnati
Mississippi st.
UCONN

2- Seeds

UTEP
Texas Tech
Oklahoma st.
Washington

3- Seeds

Seton hall
Wichita st.
South Florida
South Carolina

4- Seeds

Memphis
Notre dame
Arizona st.
Nevada

5- Seeds

Northeastern
VCU

Virginia

6- Seeds

Miami (fl)
Arizona
Oklahoma
North Carolina

7- Seeds

William & Mary
Tulsa
New Mexico st.
Missouri st.

8- Seeds

Louisiana Tech
Northwestern
St. John’s
Alabama

There will be a ton of movement considering how many games are left to be played including conference tournaments. Oklahoma State is a great example. They were projected as a 2 seed in the NIT field a week ago, but common wisdom has them placed in the field of 65 now. The field is impressive. There are several teams teetering on the edge of the .500 mark that could fall to side and open up spots. However, the battle for the final NIT slots will be fierce. Seattle will have to compete with an long waiting list of hopefuls and several of them are very familiar to SU fans-

Marshall, Oakland, Iona, Wright St., Portland, Harvard, Washington St., Iowa St., NC state, Wofford, Indiana St., Illinois St., Montana, Providence, Boston college, Arkansas, Akron, Western Carolina, Creighton and Michigan to name a few.

We will know more after the game in Idaho tomorrow night. It will be a big one for Seattle as the push to post season continues.