Over in the NIT UAB beat Vanderbilt in the quarterfinal to advance to Las Vegas against Utah Valley. The dream rematch of North Texas and UAB in the final is still alive. North Texas’ last loss was to UAB in the league semifinal that started this whole mess. The NIT was a chance to “win a championship” said McCasland, and now we are a bit closer to both a revenge match and a championship in one week of hooping. I love it. MGN will be in Las Vegas next week. The game will be at the Orleans Arena, (fine) and we will be staying at the Orleans Hotel (fine) while the team will be staying somewhere better. Definitely better than the Luxor, which apparently had vomit and other grossities in store for the UCONN squad.
Meanwhile, the CBI is still an on-going concern and it was won by fellow C-USA member and future American conference-mate Charlotte. CLT beat EKU in the final. C-USA is 13-1 in the postseason (Rice lost in the CBI). The best conference to only get one bid continues its revenge tour.
Meanwhile it is coaching change season, and transfer season, and lots of other things happening at one time. The move we mentioned yesterday is still unconsumated, which makes it more likely that it holds water. Friend of the blog Greg tweeted “you can’t accept an offer if you don’t have an offer” and while true, we also don’t know if an offer has not been made. Texas Tech is still looking for a head coach officially and that is interesting when all the other jobs — Wichita State, Georgetown, Iona, St. Johns, Notre Dame etc — are all being filled with a quickness. That Lubbock has not made a move means they are waiting for something. That something sure looks like the completion of an NIT run by a guy who is married to a former TTU soccer player.
Meanwhile FAU continues their run tonight. They take on Tennessee in the Sweet 16. There is little North Texas gets directly for their progress — even the tournament ‘units’ of pay go to the C-USA league we are all departing — but it does bolster the idea that North Texas was in a good league and finishing second to these dudes in league play was not a bad thing. FAU really is a good squad and here is the other thing: North Texas was in a good spot to beat them twice before they out-executed NT down the stretch. C-USA is a good league, the top-half of the league is good enough to do big time stuff as we have seen these last two weeks.
