Ron's Tuesday College Basketball NIT Winner

UAB is the better team shot quality wise and fundamentally, and although Utah Valley has made a great run in this NIT tournament, it is very tough to go against the C-USA right now with all the success this conference has had. UAB has a proven star in Jelly Walker, but this team is deep overall and has other talent scorers such as Eric Gaines, Ty Brewer, and of course the big man Trey Jemison. Utah Valley has struggled to take care of the basketball, force turnovers, and earn offensive/defensive rebounds. UAB is 8th in offensive rebounding percentage, takes care of the ball, and its defense can force turnovers at an above-average rate. We saw UAB beat Vandy on the road in one of the toughest places to play in college hoops (crowd-wise and with Vandy owning a strange home court) despite the Blazers only shooting 13.3% from the perimeter. Utah Valley's defense has been overrated for most of the season shot quality wise and I think we see UAB attack it consistently. We saw UAB do well at neutral site games this season, winning two in nonconference play and two more in the C-USA tourney. UAB is 5th in D1 experience and is the better team, so while Utah Valley's resume in this NIT is more impressive with wins over Cincinnati, Colorado, and New Mexico, I think the far better team in this matchup is UAB.