Tuesday Basketball Open Thread: The First Four (and more)

Gather 'round the teleboxes and tabletphones and get ready for important basketball action!

The highlight tonight, obviously, is the late game in Dayton between BYU and Ole Miss. But you might want to keep an eye on some other things this evening. Obviously, Hampton-Manhattan will require your attention, but there's some interesting things going on in the other tournaments too.

Your full TV schedule for the night

In the streaming-only portion of the schedule, Incarnate Word makes their first Division I post-season appearance, hosting Louisiana-Lafayette. For Stephen F. Austin purposes, we'll want to see how well the Cardinals perform. The NIT contest between William & Mary and Tulsa is also only available on ESPN3, and that one could be interesting. (Or giggle-worthy, depending on your feelings about Frank Haith.)

On TV (which means "in the NIT"), the 8:00 window is hot. Illinois, despite being the better seed, has to visit Alabama, who just fired Anthony Grant. That's fun. Also worth a channel-flip will be UTEP's trip to Murray State, a team which probably would have gotten a non-insulting seed if they'd won the OVC, but instead tumbled all the way to an NIT three-seed. They're fun to watch. And late tonight, Cal-Davis visits Stanford in a game the Cardinal may not enjoy.

What are you looking forward to tonight? Speak, then settle in and join us for about six hours of squeakyfouls.