Jays to Host Rhode Island in NIT

In college football, you have three tiers of bowl games. You've got your BCS games, in which (essentially) the top ten teams compete, with ostensibly the top two playing for the title. This is like the top four seeds in each region -- the so-called "Protected Seeds" and the teams the ESPN Talking Heads promote as the legitimate Final Four contenders.

Then you've got a tier of decent payday, less-prestigious games like the Alamo Bowl, Holiday Bowl, Outback Bowl and Capitol One Bowl. Teams are pretty excited to go to those games, even though there's no real prestige to winning it. This is like the rest of the Field Of 65 -- teams that get to be in the Big Dance, but don't really have a chance at the real glory.

And then you've got the "other" bowl games -- the Motor City Bowl, Music City Bowl, Humanitarian Bowl, et al. No one goes around wearing a "Random University: 2008 Independence Bowl!" t-shirt. But you're still in a bowl game and its still post-season play. This is like the NIT, with the difference being that most schools don't apologize for accepting bids to these bowl games.

For some reason, the NIT isn't looked at that way. I actually had an older gentleman at Hy-Vee tell me on Sunday morning that he was embarrassed to be a Jays fan because so many of their fans had the gall to be excited for the NIT. "What happened to our program where we're happy to settle for a consolation tournament?"

Well, if the NIT is the ceiling for your program, and you make a habit of going every year, that's a problem. If you go every once in a while, and in a rebuilding year, you get an NIT berth, that's OK. You know who else is in the NIT this year? Both of the teams that played for the national title a year ago, Florida and Ohio State.

Another person told me today that "The Jays have been to three NITs and just two NCAA tourneys since they moved into the Qwest Center. Its obvious they've taken a step back as a program."

Obvious, huh? (Disclaimer: this is where I get overly defensive in defending the impossible to defend. Maybe I should have considered a career in law.)

The first of those NIT teams started the year 10-0, suffered an injury to their starting point guard, and went 10-10 the rest of the year with a junior college transfer two-guard pressed into action as the starting point guard.

The second of those NIT teams started the year as the prohibitive favorites, and wound up so decimated by injuries that they dressed just six players for a couple of December games, and were giving meaningful minutes to a walk-on by February. That they managed a 20-10 record and an NIT berth (and were on the bubble for the NCAA's) was nothing short of remarkable.

The third of those NIT teams had nine new players, eight of which had no D-I experience. By January, two of their starters were Freshmen, and five of their top eight were newcomers. That they were able to win 20 games was, again, remarkable.

The NIT is not the NCAA Tournament. No one is claiming that it is. What it is, however, is a chance to play some more games. Its a chance to play some teams in your home gym that wouldn't ordinarily come to Omaha. And its a chance to continue practicing with coaches, something that may prove invaluable with so many young players.

***

And so it is that the Jays host A-10 school Rhode Island. Its not a particularly sexy matchup, as it pits the Jays against a mid-major program from the east coast, and an area where they don't really recruit and don't have a huge alumni base. When I saw their name pop up opposite Creighton on Sunday night, I had three immediate thoughts about Rhode Island hoops:

-Jim Harrick, one of the most heinous cheaters in the history of collegiate athletics, once coached them to an Elite Eight berth.

-They beat #1 Kansas in the Round of 32 that year, and then lucked into played #13 Valpo in the Sweet 16 -- the year of Bryce Drew's miracle shot to propel Valpo into the second week of the tourney.

-They played in the A-10 championship game a year ago.

And that's all I know about URI hoops. For someone who watches as many games as I do, I was embarrassed to say that's the sum total of what I know. Some preliminary research reveals that they sunk to horrible and then vicious levels of sucking after Harrick left them as he leaves every program he coached -- on probation. Three years ago, this team had an RPI of 301. Three-hundred-and-one. And people say Evansville is bad!

They were picked 11th in the A-10 last year, won 10 of their last 13, and advanced to the final before losing to George Washington.

This year, they returned four starters from that team, including leading-everything wingman Will Daniels. They went 21-11, but went just 7-9 inside the A-10. Sounds OK, right? Well...

They started the year 20-4, were rated in the Top 25...and then only won ONE GAME the rest of the season!?!

You read right: the Rams finished the year 1-7, winning just one game after February 10. They went from 20-4 to a tie for ninth place in the A-10, at 21-11. They lost to Xavier, UMass and St. Joe's in the span of seven days, all at home. Then they lost twice to Charlotte in four days to end the season. And now they have to come to Omaha...too bad for them. Looks like they'll be going 1-8 to end the season.

6'8" forward Will Daniels was highly touted as a junior, when there were whispers about him entering the NBA early. While I admittedly have not seen them play, it looks like he had another solid year, averaging 18.7 ppg, 6.7 boards and 2 assists a game. They have six players averaging 20 minutes a game, and 8 who average double-digit minutes, so they're pretty deep. And they score a lot, averaging 80 points a game while giving up 74. Not sure how much their ridiculous game against UMass skews that, however (they gave up 98 points, including 59 in the second half).

Potentially ominous for the Jays: they out-rebounded their opponents by an average of three boards a game this year, and shot 100 more free throws than their opponents.

Positives for the Jays: URI has only won one game since early February. That's unbelievable.

Full preview coming on Tuesday. Until then, make sure to pick up your NIT tickets on Monday, and go root for the Jays Tuesday night! You bet.