Virginia
Tech and Arizona State are this year’s Syracuse, and Hokies coach Seth
Greenberg is suddenly sounding very much like Orange coach Jim Boeheim did last
March.
The
Hokies and Sun Devils were No. 1 seeds in the 32-team NIT, the traditional
consolation prize for the best teams left out of the NCAA tournament. The other
top seeds announced Sunday night were Ohio State and Syracuse, and all had
their gripes with not playing elsewhere next week.
“All
these schools had very good basketball seasons, played at a very high
level,” Greenberg said. “I understand the committee has a tough
decision. I have a tough time facing my kids. But it doesn’t diminish what we
accomplished this year.”
The
Hokies (19-13) open Wednesday night against Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
regular-season champ Morgan State, which earned an automatic berth under a rule
that rewards teams from smaller conferences who lost in their league
tournaments.
Arizona
State (19-12), which had perhaps the strongest resume of any team that didn’t
get picked for the NCAA tournament, gets Alabama State for its opener. The
Buckeyes (19-13), who played in the national championship game a year ago, will
play UNC-Asheville, and Syracuse (19-13) gets a first-round date with Robert
Morris.
A
year ago it was Syracuse that had 22 wins, finished sixth in the rugged Big
East and got an NIT bid to show for it. Boeheim wasted no time in voicing his
displeasure not only for the NCAA selection committee, but also the computer
rankings used by the committee and that more at-large bids aren’t available to
teams from bigger conferences.
This
time it was Greenberg with the familiar refrain of every coach whose team got
left out.
“There’s
numerous schools for those 34 spots that are very, very equal,” said
Greenberg, whose Hokies finished fourth in the ACC, the toughest league
according to the RPI, and played top-ranked North Carolina to the final second
in the conference tournament.
“It’s
not an exact science and they have a very difficult decision to make.”
The
Orange entered last week’s Big East tournament teetering on the brink of an NCAA
bid, but lost what amounted to an elimination game to Villanova, which earned
the last NCAA tournament at-large berth.
“After
last year, we probably had to win two or three games,” Boeheim said after
the 82-63 loss to Villanova. “We had to keep winning and I don’t think one
win would have been enough. … In my mind and their mind, if they’re not in
the NCAA tournament it’s not a good year.”
Also
in the NIT field is two-time defending NCAA champion Florida (21-11), which
lost eight of its final 11 games and was bounced early from the SEC tournament.
The Gators are a No. 2 seed and will play San Diego State in the opening round.
If
everything holds, they would get Arizona State in the semifinals at Madison
Square Garden, and with the Buckeyes on the other side of the bracket, a
rematch of last year’s NCAA title game is a possibility.
Other
first-round games in Ohio State’s portion of the bracket are California against
New Mexico, Dayton against Cleveland State and second-seeded Illinois State
against Utah State.
Also
in Virginia Tech’s section are Virginia Commonwealth, Alabama-Birmingham,
Nebraska, Charlotte and second-seeded Mississippi, which will play UC-Santa
Barbara in the opening round.
Massachusetts
also got a No. 2 seed and will play Southland Conference regular-season
co-champ Stephen F. Austin in the opening round. The winner advances to play
either Florida State or Akron, in a rough quarter of the bracket that also
includes Maryland and Minnesota.
“We’re
excited about the opportunity to continue to play,” UMass coach Travis
Ford said. “We think we had a great regular season and not every team in
the country has the opportunity to continue.”
It
appeared the top tier of teams that weren’t chosen for the NCAA tournament
accepted invitations to the NIT. The others picked for the tournament were
Southern Illinois, Oklahoma State, Creighton and Rhode Island.
There
was some concern that a new postseason tournament set up by the Gazelle Group,
which runs the 2K Sports College Hoop Classic and the O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE
Classic, would snap up the best teams left out of the NCAA tournament.
NIT
committee chairman C.M. Newton lauded the NIT’s quality and depth the past
couple of seasons, including an entertaining final two rounds last year in
which all four No. 1 seeds advanced to New York with West Virginia beating
Clemson in the championship game.
“I
think it’s viewed as a real basketball event again,” he said. “It’s
not the national championship, there’s only one road to the Final Four and we
all understand that. But it’s a very good invitational championship for those
teams.”
