New rule could guarantee WSU an NIT spot

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www.daytondailynews.com/s/content/oh/story/sports/college/wsu/2007/02/20/ddn022107nit.html

New rule could guarantee WSU an NIT spot
Raiders are aiming for NCAA tourney, but regular-season Horizon title would give them a fallback position.
By Kyle Nagel

Staff Writer

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Since the NCAA purchased the National Invitation Tournament in August 2005, it has made several changes to college basketball's oldest postseason event. One of them could give Wright State its first postseason berth since 1993, if WSU posts one more Horizon League victory.

The NIT Selection Committee, in January 2006, established a rule that states any regular-season conference champion — after tiebreakers — that doesn't make the NCAA tournament will receive an automatic berth into the NIT. Wright State leads the Horizon League at 13-2 (21-8 overall) with just one more league game, at Youngstown State on Thursday.

"For some of the conferences that generally receive one bid, even if you win the regular season, you worry if you have a bad 40 minutes and lose in the conference tournament, it's over for you," said Mike Cusack, the Wright State athletic director. "This changes that."

The NCAA has made several other changes in hopes of making the NIT easier to follow and more exciting for teams and fans. The most drastic of them was the reduction of the field this summer from 40 to 32 teams, which creates a more even bracket.

"Attendance is up, television ratings are up, and the structure of the event is easier/more logical for our fans to follow," said Greg Shaheen, the NCAA's senior vice president for basketball and business strategies, in an e-mail. "We remain committed to the evolution of the NIT and are pleased with the results to date."

The Raiders have never appeared in the NIT. In 1993, they won the Mid-Continent Conference tournament and gained their only postseason appearance since jumping to Division I in 1987. The Raiders lost to Indiana,

97-54, in the first round of the NCAA tourney.

Cusack said any postseason appearance is positive for the program.

"It's exciting for fans, creates good publicity and most important it's great for the kids, especially the seniors," Cusack said. "The seniors we have now, they've had some adversity in their years here. This would be something great to end their careers with us."

The Wright State men's basketball team will host the second round and semifinals of the Horizon League tournament and earn, at worst, an automatic berth into the NIT if the Raiders ...

• Win their final game and Butler loses one of its final two ... or

• Tie with Butler atop the league standings and Illinois-Chicago finishes ahead of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (both are 5-9)


Horizon League down to the wire

Here are the final conference games for each team:

WRIGHT STATE (13-2)

Thursday at Youngstown State (12-15, 6-8)

BUTLER (12-2)

Thursday vs. Loyola (19-9, 9-5)

Feb. 24 vs. Detroit (10-17, 5-9)

UIC (5-9)

Today vs. UW-Milwaukee (8-20, 5-9)

Feb. 24 at Loyola (19-9, 9-5)

UW-MILWAUKEE (5-9)

Today at UIC (11-17, 5-9)

Feb. 24 at UW-Green Bay (16-13, 7-8)

[keithfromxenia]

so if uic and uwm end with 6 wins each, do they do a tiebreaker with them first, then do our tiebreaker, or does it go straight to rpi? GO RAIDERS!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Big D]

tiebreakers start from top down, so if UIC and UWM end up tied, it comes down to our RPI vs Butler's RPI.

[Raiderfan]

Basically put, UIC has to beat UWM then we have to beat YSU and hope UWM doesn't beat GB and UIC loses at Loyola.

First things first...........come on UIC you can do it!! After all you are playing to host a first round game. UIC is down 32-30 at the half.

If UIC lose tonight to the Panthers I'd say our chances or hosting the HL tourny are slim to none. Butler isn't likely to lose at home.


Go Flames!!!!!!!!