NIT 2012 Bracket: Teams That Will Prove to Be NCAA Tourney Snubs with Strong NIT

The NIT isn't a consolation prize for teams that got snubbed from the NCAA tournament so much as it is a distraction from what they are missing.

As in, at least they have something to do while all of the cool kids are at the dance.

But for those teams that want to prove they should have been included in the tournament, the NIT is also the chance to prove you belonged. And the only way to truly do that is to win the whole thing.

Here are a few teams that will prove to be snubs by either doing that (or will at least look really good while falling just short of, ahem, NIT glory).

Drexel Dragons

Did you know that Drexel won 25 of its last 27 games this season?

Of course you did—that stat has been repeated 3,645,631,213,456,234 times (all figures approximated) since Selection Sunday.

But the Dragons also won the CAA regular season title, a league that generally gets two tourney bids, and were a three-point loss to VCU in the conference championship game away from an automatic bid.

Look for Drexel to come out with a vengeance.

Seton Hall Pirates

Either Drexel or Seton Hall are going to win Region 3, mark my words. And when they meet in the quarterfinals, get ready for an excellent basketball game.

The Pirates beat UConn, West Virginia, Georgetown and VCU this year. They will be a tough out in the NIT, and if they get past Drexel, will probably win the tournament.

Oral Roberts Golden Eagles

Oral Roberts can shoot the ball as well as any team in the country, finishing with a field goal percentage 48.7 percent (11th in nation).

They also have a legitimate stud in senior Dominique Morrison, who is good for 20.0 points and 4.3 rebounds per game.

All they did this year was finish 27-6 and 17-1 in the Summit League. Oh, but they lost one game in the conference tournament, rendering the 18 league games they dominated totally moot.

Gotta love those automatic bids, right? Look for Oral Roberts to have its vengeance at the expense of the NIT field.

Washington Huskies

So Washington wins the Pac-12 regular season by going 14-4 in the league and still finds themselves out of the tournament.

That's not right, man.

Sure, the Pac-12 had a down year, but its still a premier league in the country. And sure, Washington didn't have a single signature non-conference win, but they did have very tight losses to Duke and Marquette.

Look for a motivated Huskies team to play hard and look to prove just how big a snub they were.

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