Snubbed by NCAA, teams opt out of NIT

The only time Indiana State won more games was when Larry Bird was part of a national runner-up team in 1979. The Sycamores won’t even get a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament this time.

Even with 28 wins and goggle-wearing big man Robbie Avila among a lineup with all five starters averaging double-figure scoring, the Sycamores were snubbed Sunday by the NCAA selection committee. Three 20-win teams from the Big East Conference — Providence, Seton Hall and St. John’s — were also left out of the 68-team field.

The selection committee said Oklahoma, Seton Hall, Indiana State and Pittsburgh were the first four teams left out.

Committee chairman Charles Mcclelland, commissioner of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, said five bids were stolen during the conference tournaments by unexpected champions. He said one of those was going to go to Indiana State, which lost to Drake in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament to land squarely back on the bubble.

“Under normal circumstances with those additional bids, they would have been in ... but when you start splitting hairs you have to look at something, you have to find something and that’s ultimately why they were not in the field,” Mcclelland said.

While the Big 12 got a conference-record eight teams in the field, Oklahoma (20-12) got left out even though it didn’t lose outside Quad 1 games. The Sec-bound Sooners did lose nine of their last 14 games after a 15-3 start.

“I am devastated for these young men who were left out of the NCAA Tournament, despite having a resume and metrics worthy of being in the field,” Oklahoma coach Porter Moser said in a statement. “At a later time, I will have more to say about our body of work and the selection process.”

The Sooners declined an invitation to play in in the National Invitation Tournament, with St. John’s and Pittsburgh also saying they would not participate. Pittsburgh (22-11) won 12 of its last 16 games, a stretch that began with a win at Duke.

Indiana State (28-6) will be in the NIT as a No. 1 seed. The Sycamores are among the nation’s highest-scoring teams at 84.4 points a game, bolstered by their school-record 373 made 3-pointers.

The National Invitation Tournament gets underway today with several matchups including UC Irvine (24-9) at Utah (19-14), South Florida (24-7) vs. UCF (17-15), Boston College (19-15) at Providence (21-13), Minnesota (18-14) at Butler (18-14), Xavier (16-17) at Georgia (17-16), Richmond (18-14) at Virginia Tech (18-14), North Texas (18-14) at LSU (17-15), Cornell (22-7) at Ohio State (20-13), and Kansas State (19-14) at Iowa (18-14).

NIT MATCHUPS >>

PLAY-IN GAMES TODAY

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Two of four NCAA Tournament play-in games will take place today with Wagner (16-15) playing Howard (18-16) at 3:40 p.m., and Colorado State (23-10) vs. Virginia (23-1) at 6:10 p.m.

Both games are in Dayton.

INLAND REPRESENTATION >>

The Inland region has scattered representaion across both tournaments to include DJ Davis (Riverside Poly/centennial) at Butler in the NIT; RJ Smith (Damien) at Colorado, Donovan Dent (Centennial) and Jemarl Baker (Roosevelt) at New Mexico, Jared Mccain (Centennial) at Duke, and Kylan Boswell (Colony/ Centennial) at Arizona all in the NCAAS.