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Boise State makes the NIT field as a no. 6 seed and heads to Utah

The Broncos will be doing a mini-cha cha at the NIT.

By Damien Alambra
NCAA Basketball: Fresno State at Boise State Brian Losness-USA TODAY Sports

After failing to secure the Mountain West Conference’s auto-bid with a tournament win, the Boise State MBB got a post-season second wind with an assist from the National Invitation Tournament (NIT). The Broncos had been toying around with the possibility of going into the CBI if they were not selected for an NIT bid.

Following the lead from last year, anything less than the NIT probably would not have been palatable considering the CBI requires a pay-in every round.

The the MBB will be joining their WBB halves in playing in the post-season. Though the Bronco WBB had their post-season guaranteed with a win in the championship game of the Mountain West Conference tournament. The men had to wait, probably with bated breath, to find out their post-season fates.

As a reminder: last year the Broncos had been rumored to opt-in for the ill-fated Las Vegas 16 tournament until, well, that tournament could not secure anyone else go do. In case you were wondering, no, that tournament is not going to be held this year. The idea of a tournament in Vegas actually sounds pretty nice. Just needs to be executed better.

The Broncos will be a no. 6 and travel to the no. 3 University of Utah for the first round. One positive? NO PLAY-IN GAMES IN DAYTON. So that will be nice. Should be a good game as the Runnin’ Utes finished fourth in the Pac-12 and are always a tough out.

One interesting thing to note are the few rules changes that are going to be tested at the NIT. Namely?

Quarters.

Or segments as the NCAA likes to be different and call things other names that normal people would not use. The women’s game has been using quarters segments since last year and it is quite refreshing. A better flow to the game and the built-in extra timeout is kind of nice between the third and fourth segment.

Congratulations to Coach Leon Rice and his squad. The year had ended on a highly disappointing note and an opportunity to “redeem” the season is at hand. And going to Salt Lake City is a whole lot easier for those wishing to see more Bronco ball than heading outside of the northwest.

For your records you can download a copy of the full NIT bracket HERE.