Don’t fret college basketball bettors, as we don’t have to wait until the 2026 college basketball tournament on Thursday for hoops action to return as the first two NIT quarterfinal matchups tip off tonight. I’m most interested in the second game featuring No. 1 seed New Mexico of the Mountain West hosting unseeded Saint Joseph’s of the Atlantic 10 with a 9 ET tip on ESPN2.
It will be the home finale regardless for the Lobos (24-10, 19-14 ATS), with the Pit in Albuquerque always one of the toughest places to play in the country and UNM sitting 16-3 there this season. That includes blowout wins over Sam Houston (107-83) in Round 1 and George Washington (86-61) in Round 2 of this tournament as the school has won consecutive postseason games by at least 20 points for the first time in program history. It is the first team since Virginia Tech in 2008 to reach the NIT quarters with a pair of at least 20-point wins.
New Mexico looked like an NCAA Tournament at-large team before dropping three of its final four during the season, and a last-second Mountain West Tournament semifinal loss to fellow bubble team San Diego State (it didn’t make the tournament, either) ending any hopes. The Lobos have reached the NIT quarterfinals for the ninth time in history and first since 2001. Their last semifinal trip was in 1990.
Coach Eric Olen may not be able to hang on to Jake Hall (team-best 16.0 PPG), the Mountain West Freshman of the Year and first-team All-MW pick, this offseason in terms of the NIL market. Hall’s 113 made 3-pointers this season are fourth-best in Division I history among freshmen, behind only Detroit’s Antoine Davis, Davidson’s Stephen Curry and Oklahoma’s Trae Young.
New Mexico is one of two teams in the nation to have three freshmen averaging double-figure scoring, along with NCAA Tournament No. 1 seed Arizona. Croatian freshman Tomislav Buljan is the lone Mountain West player averaging a double-double at 12.8 points and 10.4 rebounds per. He leads the MW in rebounding and with 16 double-doubles. Senior guard Deyton Albury (11.9 PPG, team-best 3.9 APG) missed the last game due to the flu but is expected back Tuesday. He was a preseason All-MW pick.
Saint Joseph’s (23-11, 19-13 ATS), under first-year coach Steve Donahue (A-10 Coach of the Year), is the only unseeded team left in the NIT and had lost in the first round the past two years but scored upset wins at Colorado State and California to get here; that’s tough flying back and forth to Philadelphia when including tonight’s game.
The Hawks rallied from down 19 with less than 14 minutes left to prevail 76-75 at Berkeley. In the closing stretch, Saint Joseph’s shot 13-for-23 while holding Cal to 6-for-29 from the floor to improve the Hawks to 6-0 in games that are decided by three points or fewer this season. Five of those six have come in either road or neutral-site games, and the team is 9-3 SU in its past 12 road/neutral site games overall.
Saint Joseph’s is led by first-team All-Atlantic 10 pick Derek Simpson and co-league Defensive Player of the Year Justice Ajogbor. Simpson is shooting just 38.1% from the field in the NIT but averaging a full line of 11.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and 5.0 assists. He will be the guy with the ball late if the game is close because Simpson is also among the nation’s top free throw shooters at 91.3%, which would be a school record.
Simpson is among the school’s all-time assists leaders, and Ajogbor among the blocks leaders while also hitting around 75% from the field in the past five games — mostly dunks and layups. He’s averaging 13.0 PPG in that run; in 63 career games in an SJU uniform prior to this stretch, the Harvard transfer had averaged 4.9 points per game.
The NIT semifinals and final are at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse on the campus of Butler in Indianapolis. The winner of this matchup faces the winner of tonight’s 7 ET Wichita State at Tulsa All-American Conference matchup, which likely is the Golden Hurricane. Saint Joseph’s has reached the final twice, in 1996 and 2005.
These schools haven’t met since 1999. I don’t put a ton of stock in common opponents, but we have two recent games to go off in that regard here. New Mexico had that blowout of GW, which lost by three at Saint Joseph’s in their only A-10 meeting. The Hawks had the close Round 1 win at Colorado State, which split with New Mexico during the year – including an upset win in the Pit.
DraftKings single-game parlay (-125)
- Hawks Alt +16.5
- Alt Under 161.5
Saint Joseph’s has been marvelous away from home and is on a 9-1 ATS run overall. To be safe, we will punch up the spread and total both a bit. The SportsLine Projection Model has UNM 77-71, and Torvik has the Lobos 81-72. Check out NIT and other expert picks in the daily newsletter.