COMMENTARY

While the sports world awaits the showdown in Indianapolis this coming weekend, three games in April that will eventually put an end to the madness of March, another not-quite-so-final foursome of talented college basketball teams will gather in New York City to decide the National InvitationaI Tournament Championship.

Chances are 50-50 that an Atlantic 10 team will claim the 2010 crown since this mid-major conference has a pair of teams competing at Madison Square Garden Tuesday night, Dayton and Rhode Island.

They’ll go up against Mississippi from the SEC and North Carolina from the ACC, which, lest you forget, is still the reigning NCAA champion, at least until around midnight on April 5 when another team will be cutting down the nets amid the raucous din in Indy’s Lucas Oil Dome.

The most recent NIT Tournament to feature two teams from the same conference in the final foursome was in 2003 when the Big Apple’s favorite sons, St. John’s, bested Big East rival Georgetown, 70-67, in the championship game.

The A-10 had a member school reach the NIT final as recently as 2008, when Massachusetts lost to Ohio State, 92-85.

This year, the semi-finals of the 73rd annual National Invitation Tournament officially tips off at 7 p.m. on March 30 when Dayton and Mississippi tangle at Madison Square Garden. After that game, tiny Rhode Island takes on one of the biggest boys on the block, mighty North Carolina which, inexplicably, fell from the mountain top this season.

The Tar Heels are the lowest-seeded team in the championship round, seeded fourth in their bracket and advancing by knocking off top-seeded Mississippi State. North Carolina could conceivably deal a double elimination to the state of Mississippi if they were to meet – and beat – Ole Miss in the NIT title game.

By the way, it’s not all that unusual to fall from the NCAA final four to the NIT final four in back-to-back seasons. Most recently, for example, Ohio State lost the NCAA title game in 2007 and then won the NIT in 2008. Two other teams followed that Buckeyes’ scenario as well, Kentucky in 1975-76 and Dayton in 1967-68.

As a matter of fact, North Carolina could make college hoop history with two victories at MSG this week. If they do, the Tar Heels would be the first team to win the NCAA title one year and then come back and win the NIT championship the following season.

The championship game is scheduled for 7 p.m. on April 1st and is scheduled to be televised on ESPN.

Both semi-final games are scheduled for ESPN2.

None of the four top-seeded teams survived to make the trip to New York City, with No. 2 Rhode Island knocking off No. 1 Virginia Tech and No. 3 Dayton eliminating top-seeded Illinois. The fourth top-seeded team, Arizona State, never even got out of the starting blocks, losing the NIT opener to eighth-seed Jacksonville, 67-66.

The reigning NIT champ is Penn State which, as a No. 2 seed, defeated third-seeded Baylor, 69-63, to take the 2009 crown back to College Station.

Finally, here’s a tidbit from usatoday.com that some of you might remember:  “One of the most bizarre incidents in NIT history was halftime of a game in 1968 when Oklahoma City coach Abe Lemons, annoyed with his team after playing poorly in the first half against Duke, ordered the Chiefs back to the court during intermission to scrimmage rather than to the dressing room to rest and regroup. Announcer Howard Cosell rattled off several questions to Lemons: ‘Coach, are you crazy? Won't your boys be too tired to play the second half? Where did you learn this coaching tactic? Did you do this to amuse the crowd?’ Lemons, as determined not to respond to the questions as Cosell was at getting an answer, fired back, ‘Listen mister, you may be big stuff in New York, but you ain't nothin' in Walters, Okla. (Lemons' humble hometown).’"