Baylor in the NIT

This is going to irritate Allison, but I am going to post about Baylor.

We made the trip down to Waco last night to watch the Bears take on Georgetown in the first round of the NIT. Now, for those of you that don't know...the NIT is a "lesser" postseason tournament when compared to the NCAA Tournament (the one your office has a pool for and you fill out brackets). Nonetheless, you still have to be good to make the NIT. Well, Baylor made it. Not only that, but they were ranked high enough to allow them to host a home game (the NIT is not played on neutral courts), and they played Georgetown. Georgetown is a historically good team, winning the National Championship in 1984. GU has also produced some great NBA players: Allen Iverson, Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Motombo to name a few.

This was something of a poetic matchup because of the utterly disappointing seasons each team had. Georgetown was ranked as high as 9th in the country this year and was supposed to go deep in the NCAA tournament. Baylor was ranked as high as 19th and was picked to finish third in the Big 12...maybe even compete for the title. But both teams hit a rough patch and finished poorly, with the NIT as their reward.

It was an exciting game. Baylor was down by 10 at halftime thanks to Georgetown shooting 76% from the floor (anything over 50% is considered good). But Baylor stormed back thanks to LaceDarius Dunn and Curtis Jerrells. Kevin Rogers put on an alley-oops clinic. He had to have had at least three of them during the game. Baylor ended up winning 74-72, concluding one of the most magical weeks in Baylor basketball history. In a single week, Baylor beat Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, and Georgetown. That is quite a feat. And to top it all off, Baylor got their first postseason tournament win since 1950. 59 years. And I was there...