With the need for a .500 record or better to qualify for the NIT, are we looking at the Providence game as a play-in for the NIT? Win and we are guaranteed a .500 record, lose and we would have to win two BE Tournament games.
Obviously we'd have to pull a UCONN to get into NCAAs.
Even if we win 2 more games this season and finish .500 (unlikely), we'd be far from a lock to make it.
False. Two more wins and we'd be an absolute lock and probably get a pretty good seed.
Ok, so considering that .500 is no longer a requirement to make the NIT and hasn't been for 12 years now, if we are an absolute lock with 2 more wins we should at the very least be comfortable to get in regardless, right?
I don't follow your logic. Two more wins means either a road win over a top 40 RPI team and a neutral court win + a game against Xavier OR a loss @Providence and two neutral court Big East Tournament wins...one being Xavier. Our RPI would be low to mid 60's. We'd be a lock.
Two losses would knock our RPI down to 90. No way we'd be in. That's almost a 30 point RPI swing. It's not just wins and losses.
If we beat Prov + Gtown then lose to X it would depend how many automatic bids are in the NIT. If there's 15 like there were two years ago that leaves 17 at large NIT spots. At quick glance I count 13 teams that would get in over us without question, and I'm probably missing a couple. That makes us an NIT bubble team. If there are only 10 automatic bids then obviously a much better spot but still no lock.
This will probably end up being moot anyway
You are just flat out wrong. Two more wins and we are not only in, but we are a high seed. It's really not even debatable. Our resume would be insane for the NIT.
So you're saying a team that is 1 game over .500 with only 2 good wins the entire season would have an insane resume? That's clueless. Our resume would be about on par with Boston College's. Yes, we have 2 REALLY good wins, but other bubble/NIT teams have good wins too, and they didn't lose 11 in a row with one of those being to DePaul and 2 to Georgetown.
Washington, UCLA, Nebraska, Marquette, Syracuse, Miss State, LSU, Penn State, Oregon, Oklahoma State, Texas, Boise State are all teams on the wrong side of the bubble that clearly have better resumes than us even if we pick up 2 more wins.
Maryland, Boston College, Georgia, Notre Dame, San Diego State and maybe even Western Kentucky would be about on par with us probably among a couple others.