NIT First Round:Illini at Seawolves. Wēijī

John F. Kennedy gave a speech in 1959 in which he famously stated:

"When written in Chinese the word crisis is composed of two characters.

One represents danger, and the other represents opportunity"

This turned out to be completely erroneous, but as far as rhetorical devices are concerned it has some extreme staying power. It is, I am sure, the approach that many of the more optimistic Illini fans are taking at this moment concerning the NIT. That the coaching staff can take this disappointing season and see it as an opportunity to win a post season tournament and gain valuable experience for next season. That is all well and good, but players do not come to the University of Illinois to play in the NIT. (Nor to UCONN or UNC, but I digress.) This is a crisis, and I don't see much opportunity.

The NIT forward, in my opinion is going to have to be looked at like a separate season. No matter how well we do, this team still only managed to win 19 games and while beating several good teams, still lost to far too many bad teams. The regular season should be looked at as its own animal. The NIT season however is not so far offering too much to look forward to.

Tonight the Illini travel, as the #1 overall seed in the NIT to a very small school (comparatively) on Long Island. As a result of a scheduling conflict, the Assembly Hall was unavailable, and the team finds itself without the benefit that most good teams enjoy in the NIT. To make matters worse, the Illini will be playing in the grand reopening of a facility that was rushed to completion just so it could host the game. The Illini are by far the best opponent Stony Brook will have ever hosted, and as a result this is one of the most important games in Stony Brook's short Division 1 history. This smells like Bradley and Georgia all over again.

Should the Illini come into this game mentally exhausted from the Big Ten tournament, emotionally drained from Selection Sunday and just altogether not interested playing in the NIT, they could lose. If they lose as the top overall seed in this tournament to an America East, it will be an even bigger embarrassment than any regular season loss. The Illini are in a no win scenario, they are supposed to have a cake  walk to MSG given their draw (Kent/Tulsa and Dayton/Cincy) but are very capable of a App State/Michigan type loss because of their inconsistency and misfortune regarding their home arena. Anything less than a blowout tonight probably will look bad in the eyes of the fans.

I am an optimist, and like to think that this team will play angry and put the sort of beat on Stony Brook that they did on Wofford or Presbyterian. But I also know that this team can mail it in for stretches, or, through no fault of their own, go completely cold shooting. That is how Utah beat them.

As far as tonight is concerned at least, I see a lot of danger, but very little opportunity.