The Sports Watercooler

Ohio State won the NIT last night in a win over UMASS. And although a good writer would have some sort of introduction about the history of the tournament or analysis on how they won, I am jumping right to my point:

Would you rather have Ohio State's basketball season or Notre Dame's?

Now, I think the answer is pretty obvious that its Notre Dame simply because they had that awesome, record breaking winning streak, and finished a best-ever tied for second in the conference. But would you rather have Ohio State's post season or Notre Dame's?

Now that is a debate.

First off, Notre Dame was upset in the first round of the Big East Tournament, and then beat a team they should have beat in the NCAA Tournament, and lost to a team that they probably should have played much better against. All in all, they had a great regular season, but left their fans in a state of mild depression.

Then there is Ohio State. Nothing too outstanding about their regular season. They were 10-8 in the conference, finishing middle of the pack. They lost in the quarterfinals of the Big 10 Conference and then won the NIT.

At first, obviously you want to make the NCAA Tournament, but think a little deeper. An NIT win means they ended the season winning 5 games in a row, some against decent teams (Cal, Dayton, UMASS). They also got some more valuable minutes, practices, and wins for a young, growing team.

For a team like Notre Dame, who for the most part is returning whole next year, is the one and done in the tournament a better experience towards winning it all next year than playing 5 games in a less publicized Tournament against a slightly less competition?

I agree that NCAA Tournament experience does matter a bit (don't tell Davidson), but the extra time spent playing games together may help even more. And the added motivation of "we won the NIT this year, now we are gonna win the NCAA" is an unmeasurable component.

So yeah, when I saw that Ohio State won the NIT this morning, all the above thoughts did run through my head. I think I would still take the NCAA appearance, the win-or-get-embarrassed first round game, and the blow out second game to the NIT, but its a lot closer than you think.