As a Saint Louis U. student and a fan of college basketball, I am infuriated that the Billikens were not selected to the NIT Tournament. It’s incredible that a team that was 20-11, finished fourth in the sixth best conference in the nation, will go to the College Basketball Invitational. The what? Exactly.
Three teams — North Carolina (yes, that North Carolina), North Carolina State and Northwestern — got at-large bids with RPI rankings below SLU. Dayton made it in, too – oh yeah, SLU beat Dayton twice and finished three spots ahead of Dayton in conference standings. But the Flyers got invited to the NIT.
So why? Well, people will say RPI (or strength of schedule), and honestly, that’s the only conceivable excuse to leave the Billikens out. SLU’s RPI comes in at a whopping 87th in the nation, and all but two teams with RPIs better than 76 made the NCAA Tournament or the NIT. But SLU also won its last four road games (including at Dayton!), won eight of its last ten, and was a NCAA bubble team until its embarrassing loss to Rhode Island in the Atlantic 10 Championship.
So, instead of our first NIT appearance since 2004, the Billikens are set for a tilt against Indiana State. Oh sure, the team gets a few more home games and the school gets some more revenue from ticket sales. But the real consolation of all this is a tournament three years from now. The O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE will be held in Kansas City in November of 2012. Among the teams participating: Kansas and Syracuse. That comforts me some.
But I’m still left saying, “Seriously, NIT? What will it take for SLU to get some post-season love?” The other thing I’m okay with is this: SLU could win the CBI, prove to the nation that it deserved an NIT bid, and then next year, win the games that seem insignificant (Bowling Green, anyone?) and go dancing instead of worrying about being left O-U-T of the NIT.
