Yes, we were all sad when UNC Greensboro missed out on the NCAA Tournament. But there is some good news: As the first team left out of the field, the Spartans will be a 1 seed in the NIT. No, that’s not nearly as fun as watching them play in the Big Dance, but it’s something. They’re just three home wins away from getting to play at Madison Square Garden and maybe even cut some nets there. Not bad. Alabama, TCU, and Indiana are the other 1 seeds and will host all the way to the semifinals. A few other bubble teams from the mid-major world also made the cut. Lipscomb, it turns out, may not have been all that close to the at-large field after all. The Bisons are a 5 seed in the NIT and will play at Davidson in the first round. Furman will be a 3 seed and draws former mid-major Wichita State. Here’s the full bracket:<doc-sep>Here’s your thread for the night of basketball. Indiana’s playing! I guess that’s exciting! NCAA Tournament First Four 5:40pm | TruTV | FDU -2 | O/U 149 8:10pm | TruTV | Bel -3 | O/U 155 Watch Temple-Belmont so you know if you should pick Maryland or Belmont to advance to the Round of 32. That’s about all I’ve got. B1G in the NIT [1] Indiana Hoosiers vs. [8] St. Francis (PA) Red Flash 6pm | ESPN | IU -18 | O/U 147 We might be back to talk a little more how Nebraska is pretty openly flirting with Fred Hoiberg before finishing the season or firing Tim Miles...it feels pretty shitty to me, but I’m not Bill Moos. In the meantime, the Hoosiers are devaluing Assembly Hall by playing host to up to three games in the National Invitational Tournament, with a potential three-fer of the Red Flash, either Providence or Arkansas, and regional final with the other side of the bracket, headed by 2-seed Clemson and 3-seed Furman. The Red Flash are here thanks to their winning the Northeast Conference regular season over NCAA Tournament 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson by virtue of going 2-0 against NEC fourth-place team Robert Morris (FDU went 1-1) but losing the conference championship final to the Knights. That’s Fairleigh Dickinson, in case you’re not up on the mascots of the NEC. Shame on you. But yeah. Anyways, SFPA is...well, they’re really bad. Like, really really bad. 261st in Kenpom, with a bottom-30 defense and slightly above-average pace and offense. On the other hand, they crash the boards with enthusiasm (20th in total orebs), led by junior G Keith Braxton (16.2 ppg, 9.8 rpg), and don’t turn the ball over a ton. I’ve written 200 words on Indiana-St. Francis (PA) in the NIT. That’s far too many. Other games to watch? NIT Games 8pm | ESPN | Texas -8.5 | O/U 152 8pm | ESPNU | Creighton -8.5 | O/U 136 10pm | ESPN2 | Colorado -4.5 | O/U 139 ESPN’s actually got a pretty good slate of ‘em tonight. I’ll be going from IU-SFPA to Temple-Belmont, but I’m going to have an eye (or a laptop) on South Dakota State heading to Austin to visit Texas. I don’t know that Mike Daum & Co. can handle the Shaka Smart Havoc Experience, but with rumors that Smart’s on the way out, we might have a Longhorns club that’s not really...into it. I’ll give Loyola one more chance, if just because I’m hoping Porter Moser will be the next coach of Northwestern. And who am I to ignore 10pm basketball? I won’t squint too hard at Dayton visiting Colorado. But wait! The CBI and CIT also kick off tonight—well, actually, the CIT kicked off last night with NJIT hosting the Quinnipiac and taking them down, 92-81. A number of notes here, because shut up, I can:<doc-sep>UNC Greensboro coach Wes Miller and his Spartans were dealt a double dose of disappointment this past week, losing to Wofford in the championship game of the Southern Conference Tournament and missing out on the NCAA Tournament. Now it's on to the NIT. "We talked all week there was no guarantee we were going to be in the NCAA Tournament," Miller said Sunday night. "We can't let that disappointment affect us." Even with the heartbreaking championship loss last Monday night, UNC Greensboro (28-6) was hoping to give the Southern Conference its first at-large NCAA Tournament bid and appeared to be in the field until Oregon upset Washington for the Pac-12 title on Saturday night. The Spartans were forced to settle for the top seed in the National Invitation Tournament. "It's been an emotional couple of hours," Miller said. "Obviously, we felt like we deserved to be in the tournament. We felt like we were good enough. To find out that you don't get in is heartbreaking, and to find out that you were one spot away, maybe one day that'll be something that makes it feel a little better, but right now it makes it feel a little bit worse." Indiana, Alabama and TCU are the other No. 1 seeds for the 32-team tournament, which begins Tuesday on the campuses of the higher seeds. The Spartans, who open against Campbell, lost to Wofford for the third time in the championship game of the league tournament. Greensboro's other losses this season were a six-point setback at LSU, a 17-point loss at Kentucky and a conference loss at Furman. This is the school's first at-large bid to the NIT, and that was not lost on Miller. "That's really, really special. We're excited about the opportunity," he said. "It's a big-time deal to be part of the NIT. It was a lot easier to say on Wednesday or Thursday, but I do think we have the type of group that's going to wake up tomorrow really excited to play basketball, even if it's not in the Big Dance. We've got to switch gears, be excited to play at home on Tuesday." Among the second seeds is North Carolina State of the Atlantic Coast Conference, which was disappointed at being snubbed by the NCAA Tournament despite a strong resume. The Wolfpack meets Hofstra of the Colonial on Tuesday. The Wolfpack (22-11) was 33rd in the NCAA's new NET rankings, a more analytical system that incorporated factors such as game results, strength of schedule, game location, scoring margin and net efficiency at both ends of the court. In a statement, athletic director Deborah Yow said she was "disappointed" that "our total body of work was not rewarded" with an NCAA invitation. She pointed out that the Wolfpack beat eventual Southeastern Conference Tournament champion Auburn while playing five games against ACC peers Duke, North Carolina and Virginia, which all ended up with No. 1 seeds for the NCAA tourney. But N.C. State went just 3-9 in Quadrant 1 games and had the nation's worst nonconference strength of schedule. Indiana (17-15) was 54th in NET, but owned six Quadrant 1 wins to keep itself in the running amid all its losses, while Alabama (18-15) was 59th in NET and just 3-10 against Quadrant 1 opponents. Alabama, led by 17-year-old point guard Kira Lewis Jr., failed to make a second straight trip to the NCAA Tournament. The Tide has lost four of its last five games, but coach Avery Johnson said he thinks his team was only one victory away from an NCAA bid. "We don't have anyone else to blame," Johnson said. "We're playing in the NIT because we just weren't good enough during the regular season, and we weren't consistent enough." Also in the field are Clemson, Nebraska, Butler, Memphis, Georgetown, Arkansas, Providence, and Wichita State. The NIT will feature two of the top-10 leading scorers in NCAA history — Campbell's Chris Clemons , fourth all-time with 3,193 points, and Mike Daum of South Dakota State at 3,042. "I'm just going to try to play the game the way I always play the game and hope for the best," said Clemons, who leads the nation in scoring at 30 points per game. Loyola-Chicago (20-13) lost its chance to make another impact on the NCAA Tournament when it fell to Bradley in the Missouri Valley Conference semifinals. The Ramblers are seeded seventh in the NIT and will face Creighton in the first round. Last year the Ramblers and their 99-year-old team chaplain, Sister Jean Dolores-Schmidt, helped make the NCAA Tournament one of the most memorable in recent years, going on an amazing 14-game winning streak to reach the Final Four before losing to Michigan. --By John Kekis<doc-sep>
While a number of teams in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) are disappointed after being snubbed by the NCAA tournament committee, others are looking to make a statement. Which teams prove to be which is always the big question entering the tournament, and the 2019 field features a number of teams who had a chance to make the dance. For a few of them, such as UNC Greensboro and North Carolina State, there’s surely some frustration, as they put strong resumes on paper but still got left out. Both of those teams will host first-round NIT games, although the Wolfpack surprisingly is not a No. 1 seed in the 32-team tournament. We’re going to take a look at the full bracket along with a few of the top teams to watch and key matchups that stand out. 2019 NIT Bracket & Matchups The NIT bracket is filled in a unique fashion, as any team who wins their regular-season conference title but doesn’t make the NCAA tournament gets an automatic bid. From there, the bracket is built from at-large selections of who the committee believes is the best of the bunch, per the NCAA. As far as the seeding goes, the higher seeds play on their home court until the semifinals when the games move to Madison Square Garden. Last year, the winner of the NIT was the Penn State Nittany Lions, with the TCU Horned Frogs winning the year before. Teams & Players to Watch in 2019 NIT UNC Greensboro is an obvious choice, as some believed they would get in the dance even after losing in their conference tournament. The Spartans finished the year at 28-6 and aside from a loss to Furman, their only slip-ups came against tournament teams including Wofford, LSU and Kentucky. NC State and Clemson were at one point believed to be battling for a spot in the NCAA tournament with their postseason matchup, but that obviously didn’t prove to be the case. The Wolfpack won that game, but both teams enter the NIT as No. 2 seeds. Another No. 2 seed worth noting is the Texas Longhorns, who finished at 16-16 and had a bleaker outlook in terms of their tournament hopes. As for a few players worth keeping an eye on, No. 8 seeded Campbell has the nation’s top scoring player in Chris Clemons. The senior guard has averaged 30.0 points per game while shooting 44.8 percent from the field. His scoring mark comes in a full three points per game higher than anyone else in the country. And while UNC Greensboro will have to slow down Clemons in round one, NC State draws the second-leading scorer in the country in Hofstra guard Justin Wright-Foreman. The 6-foot-2 guard has averaged 27.0 points while shooting a superb 51.1 percent from the field and 42.9 percent from beyond the arc. There are a number of games to keep an eye on, and the NIT could provide a few surprise teams capable of grabbing attention with some big upsets. READ NEXT: NCAA Bracket Sleeper Predictions 2019: Buffalo Among Top 5 Cinderellas