Women's NIT bracket is up...

http://womensnit.com/photos/bracket.pdf

As expected, the Eagles secured a first-round bye in the women's NIT and will play the winner of Dartmouth vs. Vermont on Monday night.

The disturbing part? The venue is listed as "TBD." 90% of these games are being hosted by the higher seed, but schools can opt out of hosting based on venue availability, fan base, etc. If BC opts out of hosting this event, I will be very upset. There's nothing going on at Conte for quite some time, and it would be nice to give the girls another game or two (or three) at home.

As for the basketball itself - our part of the bracket is very survivable (is that a word?).

Dartmouth, one of two potential round of 32 opponents, was this year's Ivy League co-champ along with Cornell (the Red earned a #16 seed in the Big Dance and the death sentence of facing UConn in the first round). They were 15-15 on the year, 11-3 in the Ivy League.

Dartmouth's most impressive performance of the non-conference slate was probably their 80-73 OT loss to ACC foe Virginia Tech. Other BC opponents on their schedule: Holy Cross (the Crusaders topped them, 60-52) and Northeastern (57-50, Huskies).

Vermont, who will be hosting Thursday night's game, will probably win. UVM was 23-8, 13-3 in America East. They beat the Cross 54-44 and lost 69-68 to UMASS (probably BC's worst loss on the season). They should be beatable.

After that game, the Eagles would be in line to face the winner of St. Johns vs. Iona/Quinnipiac. St. John's (16-13) would be a tough matchup - they beat Notre Dame, a team that creamed the Eagles back in November, and lost by under 10 to Rutgers.

If BC emerges from that round, NC State would probably be waiting on the horizon in the round of 8, which would be very, very intriguing.

Stay tuned.