'25 NIT Game 1: UC Riverside (Part Deux)

This is our seventh NIT, but we haven’t won a game in this tournament since 1984…

So I’m just gonna enjoy this one. 40+ years.

Knock on wood. Either way, this trips are rare and ought to be enjoyed…

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Should be up 15 to 17 instead of 11 if Tilly would finish dunks and layups.

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that’s asking too much

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Where has this shooting from Ensminger been all season…

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I gotta think he was in his head until he watched those two desperate ones against SMC go down. He has been great pretty much since then.

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On a very positive note: have only committed 7 turnovers and 7 personal fouls for the whole game!

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The color guy just said something like: ‘…great NIT field, lots of great teams’.
Maybe he gets a bonus for every positive NIT comment, even if it’s PR spin nonsense.

SMH

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Nice to see the end of the bench guys have some fun the last few mins.
Oboye stat sheet stuffing…7pts on 3/3 shooting and 2 blocks in 3 mins…his Torvik rating for this game will be off the charts.

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Malachi Douyon for three!!! That was awesome.

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I sure hope Bukky stays. I have a bad feeling that he is going to head for greener ($$) pastures.

The next game should be fun for SCU, at least. St. Joe’s and UAB are both good programs. But it’s not really the NCAA also-rans until they meet Dayton or SMU. Then again, aside from Boise, the Crown looks almost as bad. Bigger names but more apathy. These secondary tournaments just aren’t going to be sustainable for much longer. The NCAA Tourney will expand and probably take the NIT with it.

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Someone will be interested…7-1 with 7-5 wingspan (or whatever it is) with good hands and good mobility/agility plus a 3pt shot.
His frame and lack of mass is an issue but if you pair him with a strong and physical frontcourt mate you could have some success with him, just have to take advantage of his unique talents and scheme around his weakness.

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Let’s enjoy a truly good win. Great start, excellent shooting, solid finish. Based on past experience wasn’t sure what to expect. Tonight I’ll credit the entire team as they played hard and dominated. Next game should be harder but if we can play this way we could go far. It’s so nice to see the Broncos play exciting and entertaining basketball. Go Broncos!!

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It’s great to get into the NIT win column for the first time in decades. I’m really happy for the players especially Cam, BK, and Carlos to get a post season win with hopefully 4 more to come!! I believe those three are part of the same recruiting class if not mistaken.

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Yes they all came in together with Jacob Holt.

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I’m not going to sit around and pretend that there was actually some sort of pent up frustration in the SCU program about not winning an NIT game since 1984 - it’s really an obscure fact. The real catharsis is that oft-dreamt about day where SCU goes to the Big Dance. If anything, it feels good to watch the Herb-era Broncos get the NIT monkey off their back, though coupled with the WCC lose to Pepperdine, it’s going to take a real run here to redeem.

I nonetheless must concede it felt pretty good to convincingly win a game like this. I know the NIT ain’t what it used to be, say 20+ or so years ago, and the NIT of 20+ years ago ain’t what it used to be compared to pre-1950. But in a universe with so much dang change in college sports, it’s nice to reach out and interface with something long-running.

Perhaps it is a foreshadowing to something good to come - in the late 80s through the mid-90s, we went:

1984 - NIT
1985 - NIT
1987 - NCAA
1988 - NIT
1989 - NIT
1993 - NCAA
1995 - NCAA
1996 - NCAA

I can dream. I know someone here will point out that there was a coaching switch in 1992 :wink:

Much credit to the players for committing and showing up to play. It can be easy to forget the intense amount of practice and travel these players commit to - they have been at this, in terms of regular season play, since Halloween. It would only be human to want a break. Instead, they came out the game firing yesterday, and never trailed.

Here’s to a few more.

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Was great to watch. I think the only SCU people not making threes were the coaches and the students sweeping the floor during time outs!
Be nice to see this team show up like this a lot more often and if they had we be “dancing”.

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It should be a legitimately fun tournament from here, too. Every team left after tonight is likely to be as good or better than a top half WCC squad. Even Jacksonville State, a lesser seeming name but who just walloped Damon Stoudamire’s Yellow Jackets, has analytic numbers roughly in line with Wazzu.

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“…giving Jax State its second win over an active power conference team in program history, and the first since beating Alabama during the 1952-53 season.” - ended a bit of a drought there!!!

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I’m here for the NIT being the mid-major redemption tournament for now, with teams that actually want to play (like Jax State, apparently). In two weeks, everyone in Vegas can go watch the 14th best Big 10 school who already fired its coach and has lost 3 starters to the transfer portal limp across the court for a couple Benjamins worth of NIL funding.

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