The NIT is down to two teams for Thursday night. In both semifinal games, a better first half appeared to make a big difference.
Wichita State and Lipscomb met in the first game, a matchup with a young Shockers team getting a chance to grow and a veteran Bisons group that some felt should have been in the discussion for an NCAA Tournament bid and beat one of the other NIT Final Four teams.
In the end, as much as the Bisons running out to a 14-7 lead helped, they later fell behind by seven. A 17-3 run helped them go up 35-30 at the break. Wichita State then built an 11-point lead before the under-8 media timeout. But at the end of the day, they had Garrison Mathews and Wichita State did not.
Mathews has been a star in big games before. He had 33 points in the Atlantic Sun championship game last year to lift the Bisons into the NCAA Tournament, and last week he had 44 points at NC State (going 8-13 from long range) to get them to New York. On Tuesday night, he had 34 points, including the final seven of the game, to lift them into the final with a 71-64 win.
Lipscomb finished the game on a 21-3 run, but Mathews didn’t score any of the first 14 points. Rob Marberry (14 points on 7-9 shooting) scored six of those points, and Kenny Cooper finished off a 10-assist performance during that stretch.
In the nightcap, TCU actually had an early 8-5 lead, but Texas scored the next seven points and would later have another 7-0 run and an 8-0 run to build up a 31-17 halftime lead. TCU came to life in the second half and eventually got within 38-33, but Texas scored the next six points and saw the lead dip below double digits only once the rest of the night as TCU ran out of gas. The Longhorns advanced with a 58-44 win after losing to the Horned Frogs twice in the regular season.
For Texas, this run is potentially a good sign for next season. They have made this run without star freshman Jaxson Hayes, who was injured in the Big 12 Tournament and is likely gone to the NBA after this season. A lot of this team will return, though leading scorer Kerwin Roach II is not among them. Even so, there is good young talent on this team getting good game experience now that they hope will carry over, especially since Shaka Smart’s seat is heating up in Austin.
Thursday night’s final will be a similar matchup to the first one in that Texas is a younger team trying to build for next season not unlike Wichita State. Meanwhile, Mathews & Co. will try for a triumphant exit in the same way Roach and Dylan Osetkowski will for Texas.
Side Dishes
The CIT championship game is all set after semifinal action on Tuesday night. In the first semifinal, Marshall blew a 13-point lead, then regained the lead late used free throws to seal an 80-78 win over Hampton. Jon Elmore had 28 points to lead the Thundering Herd, with 23 of those coming before intermission. In the later game, Green Bay held off Texas Southern in overtime 87-86.
Just before we went to press, news broke that Buzz Williams will become the next head coach at Texas A&M. This news has been long expected, with the only question being when it would happen once Virginia Tech was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament on Friday night. Less expected, but a pleasant development nonetheless, is news that Fairfield is ready to hire Rutgers assistant coach Jay Young, who has been a Division II head coach and has more than paid his dues as an excellent assistant coach. These and other coaching changes are reflected on our Coaching Changes page.
The National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame announced the class of 2019 on Tuesday, and it features six former players and three head coaches. Players selected are Shane Battier (Duke), Calbert Cheaney (Indiana), Ernie DiGregorio (Providence), Terry Dischinger (Purdue), Larry Johnson (UNLV) and Todd Lichti (Stanford), while the coaches selected are Homer Drew, the late Rick Majerus and Lute Olson. Enshrinement will take place on November 24, 2019, ahead of the Hall of Fame Classic at the Sprint Center in Kansas City the following two nights.
It is possible that NC State will not add Jalen Lecque to their roster next season, as he is exploring his eligibility for the NBA Draft. The North Carolina native is currently in his fifth year of high school at Brewster Academy in New Hampshire, and he does not have a high school diploma at the moment. He is a year removed from his original high school class and turns 19 this year, so he may be able to be included in the draft.
Tonight’s Menu
The CBI championship series continues with game 2 as South Florida goes to DePaul hoping to finish off the Blue Demons after winning game 1 (8 p.m., ESPNU)
