Don’t forget about the Big Dance’s little brother

Adam Littman Staff Writer

True or false: The NCAA Tournament is the most exciting event in… Adam Littman Staff Writer

True or false: The NCAA Tournament is the most exciting event in sports.

While most would fill in choice “A” on their Scantron sheets after reading that, I’m going to have to pencil in “B.” And no, I don’t think it’s the Kentucky Derby or anything involving NASCAR, either. Sorry, but I’m not a fan of sports where you can only turn left.

I’m talking about the Big Dance’s little brother – the NIT. Let’s just call it the Half-Sized Shimmy for now.

Of course, I like the NCAA Tournament, but the National Invitation Tournament takes everything people like about the NCAA Tournament, except higher-quality basketball, and accentuates it.

Fans of the NIT are more than accustomed to games coming down to the last second and a buzzer-beater finish. Teams play a fast-paced style, earning every basket, and all for the title of 66th best team in the country. You just can’t beat that.

To be honest, most people like filling out brackets more than anything else about the NCAA Tournament. You can fill out a bracket for the NIT also, and those are even more up in the air. Aside from the notable NCAA snubs, nobody knows about teams in the NIT, which makes filling out a bracket that much more fun.

What makes NCAA Tournament brackets so popular is that there are really no concrete ways to accurately predict upsets. It’s a giant guessing game.

But the one thing that the NCAA Tournament has that the NIT doesn’t is the nation’s elite. The NIT doesn’t have any basketball powerhouses, and that widens the field so that all teams involved have a shot at winning. That in itself makes the bracket more interesting to predict.

Also, the NIT receives no coverage. No ESPN analysts are throwing potential sleeper picks down our throats to the point that nobody is surprised when they win a few games. All the people that appear on sports shows the week leading up to the NIT don’t give their NIT Final Four picks. When filling out an NIT bracket, you’re on your own.

So if you’re feeling like really just throwing darts at a dartboard while blindfolded, make a men’s or women’s NIT office pool. Hey, if you could take Tennessee, UConn and Duke out of the women’s NCAA Tournament, that bracket would be just as hard to pick. Taking those three teams out immediately eliminates the majority of women’s basketball coverage. That creates a bracket full of pure guesses.

To me, that is what March Madness should mean. How can a tournament be so “mad” when the lowest-seeded team to ever win was an eight seed?

The NIT has more unknowns going into March Madness than the NCAA Tournament. It contains a certain mystery.

March Mystery.

People like to watch the NCAA Tournament because it involves the players they’ve seen all year on television, including future NBA stars. They can watch players like Kevin Durant and Greg Oden, whereas the NIT usually doesn’t feature the nation’s top talent.

But hey, Europe needs professional basketball players, too.

Also, there is no middle ground in the NIT. Either an NIT team is upset because it didn’t make the Big Dance, or it’s thrilled to play in any sort of postseason basketball. Throw those two groups together and watch the carnage.

This year, I was pulling for Syracuse to win the NIT. It’s not that I like the team, but I just wanted to watch Jim Boeheim coach against his will. When the NCAA Tournament bracket was announced, his team was conspicuously absent from all four regions. He was not happy.

In the days following Selection Sunday, Boeheim criticized the NCAA selection committee and recited why his team statistically deserved an at-large bid to anyone who put a microphone in front of his mouth. He spit out stats like an auction caller.

Watching him coach his team in the NIT was an enjoyable experience. The Orange had to play well, or else he’d look like a fool. Watching him, it didn’t seem like he was too happy when they did.

I think that throughout his team’s NIT run, he constantly dreamt up new criticisms of the selection committee. His didn’t use his clipboard to draw plays. Instead, he was busy creating new formulas and stats to show why his team belonged in the NCAA Tournament.

Syracuse eventually lost to Clemson in the quarterfinals. Boeheim’s disappointment with playing in the NIT turned to shock from losing in the NIT. Judging by his reaction, he seemed angry that he then had no reason to gripe for being snubbed from the NCAA Tournament. His team lost to another team perceived to be inferior.

Now who doesn’t want to shimmy to that?