Arizona Desert Swarm, an Arizona Wildcats community

According to the Chicago Tribune article "previewing" tonight's NIT game, the focus has already shifted to next season and whether Bill Carmody will still be in charge. Then again, the players did say they talked about Akron on Sunday night. Probably before discussing transfer plans in case of a coaching change. The Chicago Sun-Times says that Luka Mirkovic will not play in the NIT, thanks to a nagging ankle injury. That makes the starting lineup and the bench for the Wildcats significantly shorter. My guess is that Davide Curletti will get the start to counter Akron's height, leaving Northwestern with few choices at forward on the bench.

There won't be too much coverage of the NIT around here, but it is worth noting that the conference put four teams in it. That tournament has 32 teams broken up into four groups of eight. Tennessee is a 1-seed in its regional, Ole Miss is a 2-seed in its regional, Mississippi State is a 4-seed in its regional, and LSU is a 6-seed in its regional. The four of them are all in different brackets, so they can't possibly face each other until the NIT semifinals in Madison Square Garden.

Perennial disappointments Northwestern will have to contend with the Akron big men Tuesday night. The Zips are a No. 5 seed in the NIT, and will play in Evanston at 9 p.m. Eastern. The game will be shown on ESPN2. This is a real winnable game for the Zips, and even though Northwestern is home, they may not have home court advantage. If the Big Ten alums can overwhelm the Wildcat fans, there is no reason that Akron alums can't.