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NIT
Basketball Tournament Betting Preview
By: Brian Gabrielle
BRIAN
GABRIELLE offers players consistency
difficult to find in the world of
sports handicapping. As CEO of BRIAN
GABRIELLE SPORTS, he and his team
finish at or near the top of handicapper
ratings every year and make Gabrielle
sought out as a trainer and public
speaker for handicappers.
Betting
on The NIT: Not In Tournament
- The National Invitation Tournament
(NIT) is the oldest tournament in
college basketball. The NIT was started
in 1938. It was the first postseason
tournament to be played in the country.
The NIT started what today is known
as "March Madness". The
NCAA followed 1 year later with a
tournament of their own.
The tournament
was originally played entirely at
Madison Square Garden in New York.
The opening rounds of the tournament
were later moved from New York to
campus sites in 1977 and MSG was reserved
solely for the semifinals and the
finals. This is currently how the
tournament is still played.
When the tournament
first started in 1938, the original
field consisted of only 6 teams. It
was later expanded to 8 teams in 1941,
12 teams in 1949, 14 teams in 1965
16 teams in 1968, 24 teams in 1979,
and finally to 32 teams in 1980. Over
the years, the NIT has provided many
memories and many mid-major programs
consider it a great honor to be included
in the tournament.
Unfortunately,
for many upper echelon teams the NIT
has come to stand for the Not In Tournament.
A consolation event for "also
rans".
This imbalance
in enthusiasm has robbed the NIT of
great efforts from it`s highest seeds
in recent years and for handicappers,
puts the question of motivation front
and center unlike the NCAA`s where
everyone`s goal is clear.
For these reasons,
we love dogs in the first round of
the NIT, and because players continue
to handicap first round games as if
they were regular season non-conference
games. Following the players lead,
oddsmakers continue to post odds reflecting
the preference of the players.
Traditionally,
4 points is assigned to the home team
across the board, but that hasn`t
held true in NIT games. Put simply,
they are not run of the mill non-conference
games and shouldn`t be handicapped
that way. First round NIT games are
filled with NCAA Tournament leftovers.
That`s good news for some teams and
nothing short of utter disappointment
for others.
Some top teams
who feel snubbed choose to simply
not accept NIT invitations, while
others do accept them physically but
never embrace the opportunity emotionally,
still smarting from non-inclusion
in the big show.
Teams who
go through the motions in the NIT
typically include;
- Teams who
feel they`ve been wrongly snubbed
- Teams who
won their conference in the reg
season but not the tournament
- Teams who
had NCAA aspirations early in the
season
- Teams
with senior players accustomed to
NCAA Tourney play
NIT Basketball
Tournament Betting Predictions Click
Here...
Brian Gabrielle is a documented member
of The Professional Handicappers League.
Read more of his articles and get
his betting premium plays here.
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