A Case For the NIT

When Notre Dame went on it's long 7 game skid in the middle of the season, making the NCAA tournament began to look like a much harder task. They needed to recover and win some games that would increase their ranking, such as beating UConn or Villanova. When they couldn't pull off either of those wins, it became obvious that they would have to look elsewhere for a postseason tournament to play in.

They ended up playing in the NIT this year and I've got to say... I'm actually kind of happy they did. Last year during the NCAAs, CBS drove me nuts. In an attempt to make sure that you saw the ending of every game, they refused to cut away from a game that was being dragged out and switch to the Notre Dame game. By the time they did it was two minutes to halftime. After the half the game got out of hand and they cut away again, so I got to see about 5 actual minutes of the Irish's game against George Mason. The same thing happened again in the second round against Washington State. In total, I saw maybe 15 minutes of Notre Dame basketball in the postseason. Honestly, I thought it was a under-handed way to make me order the tournament package on CBS.com.

But, this year they are in the NIT and it turns out that because ESPN has 14 different networks (all of which I have), they'll just move the game to one of those if it looks like another game could run long - I haven't had to miss a minute of the games. It's working out much better for me; I've gotten to watch the first two round and now Notre Dame gets to host a tough Kentucky team in an attempt to get to Madison Square Garden. Now sure, the NIT is essentially a tournament to crown the 66th best team in college basketball, but if your team wins a game and you can't see or enjoy it, did they really win it at all?

As for the game itself, I'm a little nervous for the Irish. They didn't look great against either UAB or New Mexico and Kentucky seems better than either of those two. I know the SEC had a down year, but all year the Irish had trouble with more athletic guards and Jodie Meeks could go off tonight. Plus, there is talk that if he loses Billy Gillispie could be fired and you should never underestimate a team playing to save their coach's job. Hopefully, now that spring break is over the students will actually fill the building tonight and give the Irish the boost they need.

But, win or lose tonight, at least I'll get to see it.