[NU Sports] Could be interesting NIT

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

> Firstly, we aren't a 20-win team yet.

Agreed - obviously I was jumping ahead to the tourney and hoping.:)

> Secondly, why would they be "stupid" to pass us up? At best
> we'd be on the road against a high seed, so where is the
> evidence that Northwestern would be a high ticket draw at
> (for example) UAB or Arizona State?

As compared to mid-major teams who won't bring viewers to ESPN or fill any more seats? Yes. If they were smart and savvy about seeding and matchups -- like the NIT used to be -- they would put NU at home and pack Welsh-Ryan, or keep the Cats on the road where a large number of NU fans are nearby (i.e. NOT Tulsa).

The Big Ten is the second best league this year, but the middle beat up on each other too much to have more than 5 in the Big Dance, so that leaves some big-name, big-market teams out there for a tournament that is on life support and needs to fill seats/catch viewers attention. Especially since it appears that everyone from the Big East (even a Notre Dame team we beat) will get in. Because of our Big Ten ties, we do that more than a MAC team or Big West team or someone else who may fill their own gym, but won't make much waves outside of that.

> Let's just see if we can even win the first round Big Ten
> game before worrying about anything else.

Agreed.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT