So Cal has accepted a bid to the National Invitation Tournament and will play No. 5-seed New Mexico on Wednesday at 8 p.m. Since the Bears are the higher seed at No. 4, they will be hosting the Lobos at Haas Pavilion, though with a win, they will likely go on the road as their next opponent will be the winner between No. 1-seed and 2007 NCAA Tournament runner-up Ohio State and No. 8-seed UNC Asheville.

There is really no way to spin it so that a berth to the NIT is a laudable accomplishment. Having said that, there are a few reasons fans should still make it out to Haas Pavilion for one last time this year:

1. This may be the final time you can watch Ryan Anderson do his thing before he leaves for the NBA. He says he hasn’t decided yet, but considering that he has given his all two years in a row to be rewarded with losing seasons and zero NCAA Tournament berths, has not attempted to hide his frustration through the losing part of the season, and that he has a good shot at being a first-round pick in the 2008 NBA Draft… we can only speculate. Anyway, it is not every year that a player of his caliber passes through Berkeley, so I say go, if for no other reason, to watch him unleash his talent one more time.

2. The Patrick Christopher-J.R. Giddens matchup. Christopher has been drawing the toughest defensive assignments all year (O.J. Mayo, James Harden, Josh Shipp), and Braun said he will probably be assigned to guard Giddens on Wednesday. Giddens, who was named the Mountain West Conference co-Player of the Year, is a legitimate NBA prospect who does just about everything. He can come off a screen and knock down shots, beat his defender off the dribble, crash the glass, work down low, and is a great all-around athlete. Christopher will have his hands full with this one.

3. New Mexico is a solid team, mostly because of Giddens, who transferred from Kansas after two years there. The game pits two offensively talented squads against each other. While the Bears score 77.3 points per game, the Lobos average just under that at 74.4 ppg. They also shoot 46.7 percent from the floor and 42.5 percent from three. Combine that with the Bears’ sub-par perimeter defense and it may be a track race at Haas Pavilion on Wednesday.

On another note, for once I feel sorry for Arizona State fans. If that offensive foul call against Jeff Pendergraph in the waning moments of the ASU-USC game last week was what did it… that’s pretty rough.

Oh well, onto March Madness (and the NIT)!