THE WAITING GAME

Talking to a few reporters last night after UConn's loss, we were trying to figure out why the Huskies would and wouldn't be a good fit for the NIT.
With an RPI of 103 and four straight losses to end the season, there's plenty of evidence they don't deserve a spot in the 32-team field. The argument for inclusion goes a little something like this:
Forgetting the numbers — also, keep in mind those last four losses were all to NCAA tournament teams, which UConn most certainly is not — the Huskies can definitely compete and win against most teams in the NIT. With conference champions that didn't win their league's automatic bid getting into the field no matter what, those are opponents UConn could certainly knock off.
Also, like when Air Force got into the NCAAs last season because the committee felt it would be a tough out, the same could be said for the Huskies in the NIT. Regardless of its record, few teams of lesser talent level, on paper, would want to face this group.
Lastly, it's not as if the NIT committee has to give UConn any help. The Huskies would likely receive a low seed in whatever of the four, eight-team regions they got placed in, so losing in the first round would be expected by the numbers. But if they made a run of two or three wins, to argue they shouldn't have gotten in becomes nonexistent.
The most remarkable part of this whole thing is how little control UConn has down the stretch. The real determining factor, in my opinion, on whether the Huskies get in is based on how many of these conference champs don't win their tournaments.
Unlikely Wright State, seeded first in the Horizon, upset Butler to win the league, although Butler is going to the NCAA tournament anyway. Central Connecticut beating Sacred Heart also means anthor NIT spot still remains.
When second-seed Albany faces No. 1 Vermont in the America East final, it could give the Great Danes a chance for revenge after falling just short in last season's first round of the NCAA tournament. An Albany win sends Vermont to the NIT and maybe that takes away the final spot, keeping UConn in Storrs for the first time in two decades.