I have two questions.
1) Did you go to the National Invitation Tournament opener versus San Diego State?
2) Did you go to the exhibition game against Lynn nearly five months ago?
The results should be pretty clear.
For every person that says they were at the San Diego State game, two should say they witnessed the 101-65 thriller against the Lynn Knights.
UF set season-lows in O'Connell Center attendance in its NIT games against Creighton (7,595 fans) and San Diego State (5,188), according to box scores.
Every other game this season recorded turnouts of at least 10,000 fans, including the ticket scalpers' specials against High Point, Charleston Southern and North Carolina Central.
The point of the experiment is to see just what the NIT means to The Gator Nation.
The results are clear.
The NIT is lame. It's weak. It's about as popular as the student honor code at the Florida State football office.
For whatever reason, be it the disappointment of missing out on NCAAs, the start of spring football or pure apathy, fans just haven't gotten up for a consolation tournament.
But does the NIT gain coolness as the Gators keep winning?
Now that they are in the semifinals, is it watchable?
For me, Wednesday night's game at Arizona State was the first must-see game of the tournament for UF.
Creighton and San Diego State are not power conference teams, and I knew very little about them.
The Sun Devils actually had a better NCAA Tournament resume than the Gators, and I had watched them and heard about them during the season.
Massachusetts is next on the docket, but the Minutemen aren't as highly rated as Arizona State.
But are the semis in New York big enough to draw a crowd?
Can you pick up the Alligator daily, read about the game's storylines (like Billy Donovan in a coaching face off against his former player, UMass coach Travis Ford), and get that tingly feeling?
I can see both sides of the argument: to watch or not to watch.
The NIT lacks popularity for obvious reasons.
The winner's only prize is the title of 66th-best team in the country.
I also understand why some are amped about the prospect of another tournament title.
Everyone knows that playing two more games can only help the freshmen and sophomores, and ending the season with a win can generate a little bit of momentum to make up for a rebuilding year.
But that March (or April) Madness feeling just isn't there.
If UF wins the NIT, people won't pour out onto University Avenue, climb streetlights and throw burning couches out of second-story windows.
Jeremy Foley won't buy the court at Madison Square Garden, which is a good thing, because if he did the Gators would catch the Isiah Thomas curse.
There won't be a championship celebration and no "One Shining Moment."
But what transpires at the world's most famous arena next week won't be totally forgotten.
Can you just imagine looking up into the rafters of the O'Dome next year and seeing "NIT Championship" next to a pair of NCAA title banners?
