NIT Bracket 2012: Washington Will Use Tourney Snub as Motivation to Win It All

The regular season Pac-12 champion Washington Huskies will use their NCAA Tournament snub as motivation to steamroll the NIT field this March and claim a different tournament championship.

The No. 1-seeded Huskies took down the Southland Conference's University of Texas-Arlington in the first round before routing fellow NCAA Tournament snub Northwestern by 21 points in Seattle. Washington is now one win away from the semifinal and awaits the winner of Oregon vs. Iowa.

The Huskies split with the Oregon Ducks during the regular season, beating them by 16 points at home on New Year's Eve before falling by 25 points on the road last month. 

Washington will play host to the winner of Sunday's matchup regardless, so advantage Huskies in the quarterfinal. The key to success in Washington's next matchup: rebounding. The nation's fifth-best rebounding team will likely overwhelm their opponent on the glass en route to the March 29 final.

Making Washington's road to the NIT crown that much easier is the fact that only one other No. 1 and 2 seed remain in the field. Seton Hall, Arizona, Saint Joseph's, Mississippi and Dayton all lost within the first two rounds, leaving only Tennessee and Miami as top seeds on the Huskies' radar.

A team that ransacked the Pac-12 in 2012, the Huskies' 14-4 conference mark make them the class of the NIT field, and their narrow losses to Marquette and Duke on a neutral court (by a combined eight points) early in the season suggest they are NCAA tourney material, despite what the committee's selection would have you believe.

The fantastic trio of Terrence Ross, Tony Wroten and C.J. Wilcox will be tough to beat. The three combine for 46.2 points per game, and each shoot better than 44 percent from the field. 

The Huskies have won seven of its past nine games overall including their disappointing, short-lived Pac-12 Tournament run which likely cost them a spot in the Big Dance. 

They are a motivated and hot team right now, however, and will use their 2012 NCAA Tournament snub to get even with the selection committee and college basketball at Madison Square Garden this March.