2017 NIT

[pfcmsh]

Illinois State played well. I was rooting for them. It would have been interesting to see Illinois travel to Normal for the 1st time in 97 years, the results were different! Congrats to the Red Birds for a great season.

[wizard1]

2017 NIT

In the time out, Did DM strongly tell his guys to not foul and to stay away from any kind of contact at all with 1.5 sec. remaining. What do you think?
Wiz

[pfcmsh]

Illinois State raced out to an 18 point first half lead vs. University of Central Florida, and seemed in control, but UCF slowly chipped away at the lead and made it a close game the last few minutes. Then with about 1 1/2 minutes left, UCF took a 61-60 lead lead with 14 second left and UCF leading 61-60.

There was a crucial call with 14 seconds left and UCF leading 61-60. UCF inbounded the ball, and the UCF player tried to call a timeout. However, the official, instead of granting a timeout, called a jump ball as the ISU player reached around the UCF player with both hands from behind and tried to grab the ball. It lead to a change in possession, and allowed ISU to retake the lead 62-61.
But then as UCF player B.J. Taylor (leading scorer with 22 points) drove up the court in the final seconds, ISU guarded him closely, and a foul was called on ISU. He then sank 2 FTs to win the game for UCF 62-61.

I though both calls were questionable calls. What do others think? But ISU is eliminated and their season is over, and UCF moves on to host the winner of the Illinois-Boise State game.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-bas...meId=400946811

I agree it was a bad foul call on UCF. I didn't see the foul clearly on ISU red.

[Da Coach]

It was against the far sideline and the UCF player was surrounded by ISU players, so I didn't really see it well either. And they did not run a replay on ESPN, since they were in a hurry to move on to their next game. But obviously, every ISU fan in the arena thought it was a bad call.

The foul occurred a long way from the basket with barely more than 1 second left in the game, so I would think ISU would have been better off taking their chances with the UCF player trying a shot from there.

[Braves2006]

It was a foul in my opinion. No reason to be riding Taylor in that situation. Beyond that, The Birds really blew a big lead at home and should of never been in that position to begin with.

[tornado]

it was not a smart play - it was asking for foul..
if you have the lead at the end of a game you do NOT foul....

with all the talented big men ISU has (McIntosh, Hawkins, Fayne) they take way too many 3-pointers, got outrebounded and went to the foul line infrequently



in retrospect the seeding in the NIT was also bad, almost all of thr 1, 2, and 3 seeds are gone - only Illinois remains

[Da Coach]

Illinois lost to UCF 68-58, and they have been eliminated from the NIT.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=400947458

UCF will be joined in the NIT Final Four by the winner of tonight's CSU Bakersfield-UT Arlington game-

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=400947458

Along with the other 2 quarterfinal winners last night- TCU and Georgia Tech

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/scoreboard/_/group/50/date/20170321

The Final Four of the NIT will be played in Madison Square Garden March 28 & 30-
Bracket (not yet updated to show the final four)-

http://i.turner.ncaa.com/sites/default/files/external/gametool/brackets/nit_mens_2017.pdf

[Da Coach]

The NIT semifinals last night-

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/scoreboard/_/group/50/date/20170328

#6 seed Georgia Tech beat #8 seed Cal State Bakersfield 76-61

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=400948296

#4 seed TCU beat #4 seed UCF 68-53

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=400948289

[Da Coach]

NIT Championship game tonight at 7:00 PM Central on ESPN-

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/scoreboard/_/group/50/date/20170330

[tornado]

What an amazing job at TCU by head coach Jamie Dixon
They haven't come close to 20 wins in 12 years...and are coming off 12-21
and he leads them to an NIT Championship and 24 wins!

He went from 12 to 24 wins in his 1st year with basically just the players he inherited

[Da Coach]

What an amazing job at TCU by head coach Jamie Dixon
They haven't come close to 20 wins in 12 years...and are coming off 12-21
and he leads them to an NIT Championship and 24 wins!

TCU's regular season was not that great. They were 6-12 in the Big 12. They finished in a tie for 7th place in the 10 team Pac 12, and they were 2 games out of last place. And they were the 8th seed out of 10 in their tournament, which was worse than Bradley's conference record and seeding.