2026 NIT starts

 Eight NIT games today.

Since all the pre Dance talk about Auburn deserving a bid, I'm curious about USA(SBC) playing at Auburn. SBC PoY Chaze Harris (18.9 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 4.9 apg) will be a marked man.

Seattle(WCC) hosts St Thomas (MN) who finished second in the Summit. Nolan Minessale  20ppg for the Tommies

I thought Wichita was snubbed so we'll see if they play well hosting Wyoming.

March 18, 2026

AAC: WICH  got by WYO and Tulsa needed OT to defeat SFA

Christian May (16 points,  8reb), hit go-ahead 3-trey from the corner with 35.5 seconds left for UNCW  in a 68-67 win over Yale,

 USA lost to AUB and DAV fell to OKST, who benched three starters

SEA represented the WCC well with an easy win over UST. Maldonado (15pts, 5 asst) for the Redhawks.

UNLV beat UCI and LIB beat GM

March 19, 2026

L. Wolf (24pts, 7 reb)   for Illinois St(MVC) in 79-58 W over Kent St(MAC) 

MWC: UNM and NEV won and CSU lost to JOES

March 24, 2026

Down to 8 teams . Games are on ESPN 2

Tuesday, March 24 — Quarterfinals 

No. 1 Tulsa vs. No. 3 Wichita State, 7 p.m.  AAC matchup

No. 1 New Mexico vs. Saint Joseph's, 9 p.m. |  MWC /A10

I'll go with Tulsa and UNM tonight and Dayton and Auburn tomorrow night

Wednesday, March 25 — Quarterfinals

No. 2 Dayton vs. No. 4 Illinois State, 7 p.m. |  A10/MVC

No. 1 Auburn vs. No. 2 Nevada, 9 p.m. |  SEC/MWC

March 25, 2026

T. Buljan UNM (27PTS11REB)for the Lobos who handled the JOES, and Tulsa got by WICH

Wes Miller, ex-Cincy HC, signed a five year deal with Charlotte(AAC)

March 26, 2026

 I guess ILLST (MVC) is the Cinderella of the NIT. C. Walker ILST

(13PTS10REB) They beat Dayton while AUB beat Nevada.

April 2 at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indiana: : AUB/ILLST, UNM/Tulsa

March 27, 2026

Saint Marys promotes M. McConnell to replace Bennet (ASU)

Chris Mack leaves Charleston(CofC) for USF. You'll remember him from his stints at Louisville and Xavier coach.

Donlon, an assistant at Clemson , takes the EMU HC job . He was 155-133 as HC at Wright State and Kansas City(formerly UMKC) HC

March 28, 2026

and bam, Mark Turgeon re-appears to be the HC at UMKC (Summit). His last gig was at MD where he was dismissed after the 2020/21 season

March 29, 2026

Travis Ford is back. Ark-LR(WAC) hired him. His last gig was at St Louis(2016-24)

WAC merges with the ASUN to become the United Athletic Conference on July 1, 2026,

April 2, 2026

ILL ST surprising run is done. AUB blew them out . T. Coleman scored 17 for the Redbirds.

DGreen scored 13 for Tulsa in a 74-69 W over UNM

TUL(AAC)/AUB (SEC) in the final  April 5, at 8 p.m. at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. ESPN2 is airing the game.

April 6, 2026

D. Green (TLSA) 25PTS,6REB in an OT loss  to AUB. Tulsa made a he!! of a comeback in the 2nd half after a weak first half. Tigers prevailed in OT.

April 7, 2026

UNC Greensboro Spartans

Former coach: Mike Jones (March 9)

New coach: Jerod Haase (March 17) , who's last HC gig was at Stanford. He was the HC at UAB(2012-16) before that.

2026 Dance is near

 D. Mingo scored 35 for CTL in a win over UAB and faces USF  today in its bid to steal a dance ticket. WICH/Tulsa is the other AAC matchup.

SDSU escaped with a win over UNM to move to the MWC final against USU, who beat Nevada.

I thought SHSU was going to win the game against KENN, who roared back in the second half for the W and faces LT, who beat MOST, in the CUSA final.

UMBC, my alma mater, faces Vermont in the A-East final, It would be funny if the Retrievers made the Dance and faced UVA, coached by Odom., who coached UMBC in the 2018 Dance upset of UVA.

Akron/TOL in the MAC final

Cal Baprist/UVU in the WAC final

Hawaii/UCI in the Big West final

March 15, 2026

Cheers to to D. Armstrong(33pts) and UMBC who beat VER to get  the AE Danced ticket 

A. Lyles (15PTS16REB) for Akron who's Dancing

WICH/USF in the AAC ffinal today. I think both are going to the Dance

Dayton/VCU in the A10 final today. Does the A10 get three tickets with SLU losing to Dayton yesterday

Cal Baptist , Hawaii , KENN, USU , Howard, and PVAM punch tickets

March 16, 2026

WCC (3), MAC(2), and A10(2) is fair , but Wichita St (AAC) and SDSU (MWC) deserved a bid. Big East only got three so it looks like it's a power four(35) now. I'm taking UMBC to beat Howard tomorrow night in one of the play-ins

March 18, 2026

Well UMBC won't  have a  chance to play UVA at the Dance.  Howard played better early and survived a late comeback attempt by the Retrievers. King led UMBC with 19 points

March 19, 2026

MOH shut up some folks last night. Elmer scored 23 for the RedHawks in a play-in W over SMU

I'm tempted to take Akron but don't like the matchup with Texas Tech

March 20, 2026

A10 goes 2-0. SLU blows out GA, and VCU roars back to defeat UNC. Will Schertz, the SLU HC, leave after one season?

High Point(BIg South) edges Wisky.

March 21, 2026

Falslev UTST (22 PTS , 7 REB , 4 AST) and the Ags rode a strong second half to a win over NOVA

Daniels Jr. CABP (25 PTS , 7 REB , 3 AST) on'y scored 18 in the first and were down by 20, and played a better second half in a 68-60 loss to Kansas.

Wright St was in the game with UVA until the final minute. UVA turned up the D on the Jacarmy and held on for the win

MAC: Akron & MOH each lost by 20 or more points.

Wild  action at the end of regulation  UK tied it at the buzzer and survived OT for the W over Santa Clara.

March 22, 2026

R.Martin HIPT (30 PTS , 4 REB , 5 AST) helped the Panthers hang with ARK but fell 94-88. VCU and SLU  were rolled by respectively, ILL and MICH. GONZ lost to TX.

March 23, 2026

Utah St, the last non-power hoops  teams at the 2026 Dance, lost to Zona 78-66.  Aggies were outrebounded  54-26

April 1, 2026

No foolin: : Ben Jacobson, who returned 11 members of his 2024-25 roster to the UNI squad that made the 2026 Dance, is taking the HC job at Utah St.

April 4, 2026

A first name from a an old, western flick-  Nevada Smith, an asst at Marquette, replaces G. McNamara(Syracuse) at Siena. 

Non-power conference tournaments in March 2026

 Horizon: Detroit Mercy has been on my radar for a few weeks. Last night T. Nadeau (17PTS 6REB) for the Titans who move on to face RMU on Sunday

NEC: Chicago St was on the edge of downgrading many of its sports teams a few years ago. They gave LIU a scare  before falling 79-75 . S. Byard (22PTS12REB) for the Cougars

OVC: T. McMorris(15PTS13REB3BLK) for EIU in upset of SIU-Edwardsville

March 6, 2026

SBC: T. Moore (25PTS4STL) in the GASO upset of Ark St  and now faces USA. TXST plays USM in the other semi.

Top seed Navy survived Bucknell to stay alive in the Patriot T

March 7, 2026

MOH needed OT to beat Ohio and remain undefeated. Zips crushed NIU. Not the MACT yet ,but these teams are getting a lot of national ink.

A. Applewhite scored 34 points for GASO in an  upset of  USA . USM got by TXST  in the SBCT

High Point rolled GWEB and looks very tough in the Big SouthT

March 8, 2026

Rod Strickland, a player at DePaul, then the NBA, is going to the Dance again, this time as the HC of LIU(NEC).  He was a key player for DePaul when the Blue Demons went to three straight NCAA Tournaments and back-to-back Sweet Sixteens in the late late 1980s.

 Tenn St will represent the OVC at the Dance

One seed NDST will face three seed ND in the Summit final. George Natsvlishvili made a free throw with 0.1 seconds for the ND Fighting Hawks's in a 67-66 W over 2 seed St. Thomas.

Anderson 25 PTS , 12 REB , 3 AST for HIPU, who faces two seed Winthrop today for the Dance ticket.

March, 9, 2026

GASO continued its hot run with a W over USM and will face Troy, who beat the Herd, in SBCT final.

NDKSU won the Summit 

L. Wells NKU  26PTS 9 REB in a blowout of GB in the HorizonT. NKU plays Wright St tonight. DET /RMU in the  other semi-final matchup

March 10, 2026

After Santa Clara beat SMC in the WCCT semis, I'm guessing  the WCC gets three tickets. Zags beat the Beavers to set up tonight's final. S. Gavalyugov 23PTS, 6AST for the Broncos. 

GASO ran out of gas and fell to Troy in the SBCT. Nice game for Dowd, TROY F,

23 PTS , 13 REB , 3 AST

Wright St won  and faces DET inthe Horizon finaland. Furman  upset ETSU, the 1 seed in the Southern Conference.

March 11, 2026

Zags get the WCC ticket with a W over SC.

K. Pickett WRST had 17PTS,7REB,4BLK in the comenback win over DET for the Horizon ticket.

Sienna knocked off MERR for the MAAC ticket

Southland Semis: SFA came back late to beat TAMCC  and McNeese held up UTRGV

March 12, 2026

McNeese punches Southland ticket. Garcia scored 31in the win over SFA. Will Wade left for the NCST job and Bill Armstrong doesn't miss a beat.

Idaho beat Montans for the Big Sky ticket.

1 seed Liberty upset in the CUSA semis by M. Osei-Bonsu (31PTS8REB) and his MOST teammates

March 13, 2026

L. Bettiol for (25PTS8REB)  MASS in thee upset of MOH. Akron nipped BUFF and TOL and KENT also advance in the MAC.

M. Falslev(24PTS9REB3STL) for USU over UNLV. SDSU, NEV, and NM also advance in the MWC.

KENN beat WKU to face MOST and LT beat MTSU  to face SHSU todayin the CUSA.