SMU wins a thriller

[uconnisgood]

At home vs. Cal. Going to the final 4....of the NIT. Would you rather SMU be a first...lets say round of 32 exit or the NIT champ? Which is better for the AAC?

 

[amory]

Champion of the NIT. It helps their program more than an early round exit in the NCAA.

I hope Larry Brown believes this is his last job and continues to put his all into it, and tries his best to put them in a good position when he finally retires. I think an NIT championship would mean a lot to SMU and gives them great momentum for next season.

 

[gwhuskyfan]

Kudos to SMU. Place looked packed for an NIT game. Fans turning out is great for the conference

 

[Marty Jackson]

At home vs. Cal. Going to the final 4....of the NIT. Would you rather SMU be a first...lets say round of 32 exit or the NIT champ? Which is better for the AAC?

this is a question best answered in hindsight.
everyone would rather make the NCAA. of course, if you knew you would lose in the first round and win the NIT, then you'd choose the NIT.

SMU in the NCAA would have been a good thing for the AAC

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Brown is an amazing coach. You don't even need to see the score to know, you can just look at the players play, especially on defense.

 

[BlueMAB]

An NIT final four team could make it past the round of 32. Yes, being a 1 seed in the NIT gives you home court advantage. However, it's fair to say SMU (depending on the draw) could have been a sweet 16 team, Dayton is.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Champion of the NIT. It helps their program more than an early round exit in the NCAA.

I hope Larry Brown believes this is his last job and continues to put his all into it, and tries his best to put them in a good position when he finally retires. I think an NIT championship would mean a lot to SMU and gives them great momentum for next season.

Larry Brown is a New Yorker
Getting to MSG is a big deal for him ,he was crushed by the demise of the Big East.
He would rather be in the a Eastern Final but any time you play in the garden its good for your program.

 

[BugsyCT]

NCAA or not, their NIT run is still a good stepping stone for that program.

 

[chapwilvaug72]

who cares about smu; joke-in '88 when UCONN was NIT champ do you think conf members cared-please

 

[huskyharry]

SMU will be tough next year. They have many strong players returning (Nic & Ben Moore, Markus Kennedy and Frazier) and next year they add Mudiay plus they are still in the running for Myles Turner.

 

[mauconnfan]

Congrats to SMU/Larry - reminds me of Huskies '88 but JC was a lot younger, that could be an issue as the next hire needs to be able to keep the momentum from Larry!

 

[Kitaman]

NIT or not, no team likes to be watching games on TV right now. Congrats.

 

[Confident Carl]

At home vs. Cal. Going to the final 4....of the NIT. Would you rather SMU be a first...lets say round of 32 exit or the NIT champ? Which is better for the AAC?

Great question. The TV exposure and playing in the Garden is probably more valuable than an early exit from the NCAA. Plus having George Bush, Tony Romo and Jason Garrett in the crowd dosn't hurt. If SMU wins the championship, and the Women win it all, then if either Ville or UCONN win the Men's, all three champs will come from the American. Interesting scenario. What Larry Brown has done by resurrecting the SMU program is pretty amazing.

SMU recruited a top three guard away from Kentucky for next year, Emmanual Mudiay - http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcspo...udiay-top-pg-in-2014-picks-smu-over-kentucky/

 

[Jimdish255]

We may have to schedule an extra game after the FINAL FOUR to determine the true National Champion. Wouldn't that be funny! Put it on PPV in MSG and keep all the dough!

 

[Onions]

Any program would rather make the NCAA than win the NIT. Not even close.

 

[Jimdish255]

who cares about smu; joke-in '88 when UCONN was NIT champ do you think conf members cared-please

Joke?Doesn't matter whether everyone else recognized what was happening. We knew it was an indication UConn was ready to move to the next level and start going after talented kids. And they knew it too. That win was big but I guess you had to be part of it to understand.

Any program would rather make the NCAA than win the NIT. Not even close.

But what happens after that impacts the program to a greater degree.

 

[Uconn77Duke74]

The question was NIT Champ vs. NCAA round of 32. Really depends on the state of that school's basketball program imo. Winning the NIT at least gives you a full off season to complain that you should have been picked.
That being said the teams that caused 6 of our 8 losses this year are still playing post season basketball, 'Ville, SMU and Stanford so it makes us look better.

 

[gtcam]

Brown is an amazing coach. You don't even need to see the score to know, you can just look at the players play, especially on defense.

an amazing NIT coach

 

[sdhusky]

an amazing NIT coach

With a NCAA Championship

 

[Confident Carl]

Any program would rather make the NCAA than win the NIT. Not even close.

It's a little more complicated than that. SMU just beat two power conference schools in LSU and Cal. They are rebuilding a program. Indeed they got screwed by the NCAA committee. Winning the NIT will be their vindication. I don't think there is one answer to the question but in SMU's case I believe they would prefer the NIT title than a one and done NCAA. The problem is SMU would have advanced in the NCAA's. So if you say Sweet 16 vs. NIT champ. No question you take Sweet 16!

 

[BlueMAB]

Winning the NIT was huge for UConn. It showed we could compete on a national stage. We won the NIT before winning the Big East.

For programs with multiple national championships winning the NIT is meh.

For SMU, it's a big deal. It's a brick in the foundation. It's good for them, and it's good for us.

Would you rather be Houston, UCF, or USF and at home watching? (I know Houston made a few national championship games, but you've seen their attendance, they just don't care).

 

[Onions]

Winning the NIT was huge for UConn. It showed we could compete on a national stage. We won the NIT before winning the Big East.

For programs with multiple national championships winning the NIT is meh.

For SMU, it's a big deal. It's a brick in the foundation. It's good for them, and it's good for us.

Would you rather be Houston, UCF, or USF and at home watching? (I know Houston made a few national championship games, but you've seen their attendance, they just don't care).

I agree winning the NIT would be a big deal for SMU. Getting into the NCAA's would have been bigger. When they say a school has made 8 straight NCAA's that means something. When you say a school won the NIT the first thing you think is "oh, they weren't good enough to get to the dance." Winning the NIT is better than nothing, but I can't think of any school that wouldn't rather just get to the NCAA tourney.

 

[HuskyHawk]

They don't get to choose, so the question is irrelevant. What matters is that those people who looked at the committe and said "WTF are you thinking" when they left SMU out are being validated. Everyone who said that the AAC got screwed is being validated, and SMU is helping that effort. We need them to win the NIT. That way, the next time the committee will think twice about discounting an entire league. The final four of the NIT are the bubble teams that should have made it in. Baylor won last year. BYU was in the final four, along with Iowa. This year they were in the NCAA (Maryland choked all year).

 

[BlueMAB]

I agree winning the NIT would be a big deal for SMU. Getting into the NCAA's would have been bigger. When they say a school has made 8 straight NCAA's that means something. When you say a school won the NIT the first thing you think is "oh, they weren't good enough to get to the dance." Winning the NIT is better than nothing, but I can't think of any school that wouldn't rather just get to the NCAA tourney.

If a school wins the NIT, that might be the first thing YOU think of. The first thing I think of is, "too bad they got left out because they were obviously good enough to make the NCAAs and they probably got screwed".

Of course making 8 straight NCAA tournaments means something, but that wasn't part of the equation. The question was based on one year. NIT Final Four/Championship or early NCAA exit? Not "8 straight" NCAA appearances or "NIT Final Four".

Winning an NIT championship is not an easy task. SMU has 26 wins. FSU has 22. Louisiana Tech won 29. Southern Miss won 29. Minnesota and Clemson have 23. I'm not arguing these are all NCAA worthy teams. But say SMU wins and ends up the season at 28-9. Considering they were in the top 25 for part of the year, I don't think there's any negative from winning the NIT. And I think that record with a championship is worth more than not making the sweet 16 for a program like SMU. And I would argue they shouldn't have been left out of the NCAAs, not "they weren't good enough for the NCAA's".

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

who cares about smu; joke-in '88 when UCONN was NIT champ do you think conf members cared-please

Take a break.