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NORMAL — A week of suspense didn’t give Illinois State’s men’s basketball team the ending it wanted Sunday. The Redbirds (24-9) were not selected as an at-large team for the NCAA Tournament when pairings where unveiled on national television late Sunday afternoon. | Video | Fans react | Play Hoops Challenge
ISU was hoping to make its first NCAA tourney appearance in 10 years. Instead, the Redbirds will be playing in the National Invitation Tournament. ISU earned a No. 2 seed in the NIT and entertains No. 7 Utah State (24-10) at 9 p.m. Wednesday at Redbird Arena.
“It’s an honor. It’s a great postseason tournament,” said first-year ISU coach Tim Jankovich. “We have not been to the postseason in a long, long time (2001). If we were coming off a couple Final Fours, it would be a different perspective.”
Still, Jankovich said his players were “very disappointed” about not being selected for the NCAA tourney. ISU finished second in both the Missouri Valley Conference regular season and tournament.
Drake handed the Redbirds a 79-49 setback in the Valley Tournament title game a week ago. That led to seven days in limbo for ISU, not knowing its postseason fate.
“We talked for a number of days that whatever happens we have to be positive and not be drug down in a sea of negativity so many people around the country try to drag us into,” said Jankovich. “We’re disappointed, but upbeat at the same time.
“This can be a celebration as well and not be all negative. I think we’ll see a group that bounces back pretty quickly.”
Missouri Valley commissioner Doug Elgin called the NCAA pairings “a very dark day” for teams outside the major conferences. The Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, Pac-10 and Southeastern gobbled up 28 of the 34 at-large spots for the second straight year.
“The other 25 leagues got six berths. It’s alarming. I cannot square that with reality,” said Elgin. “Some very good teams got passed over, including Illinois State.”

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BY MIKE SZOSTAK
Journal Sports Writer
PROVIDENCE — Brown is going to a dance.
Not the Big Dance, the NCAA Tournament.
And not the Little Dance, the retooled NIT.
Brown is going to the new dance on the basketball block, the 16-team College Basketball Invitational, and the players are thrilled.
“They’re all really excited, as are the staff and I,” coach Craig Robinson said last night after receiving the good news. “We’re happy to keep playing. We practiced this morning, hoping we’d have another game.”
Brown finished second behind Cornell in the Ivy League, the only Division I conference that does not have a tournament to determine the recipient of the NCAA’s automatic bid.
Brown’s RPI in the 104-106 range made it a long shot for the NIT, now owned and operated by the NCAA, and Robinson and his players were not disappointed they didn’t make that cut.
“We know how the process works. We’re in the Ivy League, and our RPI and strength of schedule aren’t as strong. We’re just happy there’s another tournament now,” he said.
As of 10:30 last night, he was still waiting to learn his opponent.
This will be Brown’s fourth postseason appearance since the NCAA Tournament began in 1939 and third since the Ivy League started in 1956-57. The 1939 Bears lost to Villanova, 42-30, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and the 1986 Ivy League champions fell to Syracuse, 101-52, in the first round of the NCAAs. The 2003 team went to the NIT and lost in the first round to Virginia, 89-73.

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ATLANTA (AP) — Florida’s first-round exit from the SEC tournament left the Gators with a four-game losing streak, shaky NCAA tournament credentials and a gloomy prediction from their coach.
Mykal Riley and Alabama built a big first-half lead and beat the Gators 80-69 on Thursday night to end Florida’s three-year run as Southeastern Conference tournament champions.
The fall from the top of the SEC seemed to be the least of Florida coach Billy Donovan’s worries. The two-time defending national champion Gators (21-11) may be left out of this year’s NCAA field, and Donovan says changes must come if his young team can return to prominence.
Florida started two freshmen and two sophomores, and three of the team’s top four reserves are freshmen. Donovan didn’t sound encouraged by what normally would be an encouraging sign for the future.
“It’s hard for me to be excited going forward because I don’t see things getting fixed,” Donovan said.
“It’s in front of our guys, what it takes to win. For whatever reason, I haven’t brought it out in them. They’re not committed to it. … I’m not really excited about seeing this group of guys being sophomores.”
The Crimson Tide (17-15) had a 28-point lead shrink to 6 before recovering to beat Florida.

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The NCAA tournament selection committee is meeting in Indianapolis this weekend, for the selection of the 34 best at-large basketball teams in the nation, pairing them up against the 31 automatic qualifiers and then listening to the critics instantly pick apart which teams were left out. Here are few things funs can do during the Selection Show.
1. Host a tupperware party - It’ll keep your mind off the crappy end to the season AND you’ll get some nice free gifts from the sales lady!
2. Play a video game that involves killing people in a violent manner - You can pretend your victims are prick coaches you hate like Jim Calhoun, Pete Gillen, and the quitter Bob Knight.
3. Begin spring cleaning - It’ll make your wife/girlfriend happy and maybe you’ll actually get laid in March for the first time since you became obsessed with college basketball oh so many years ago.
4. Go outside - I know this is foreign to all of us on days that involve college basketball games,news, and analysis but maybe you’ll like it. Maybe.
If all else fails swallow your pride, don’t be a hater, and wish a good friend luck on this NCAA Selection Show this Sunday.

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By brIAN DAVIS / The Dallas Morning News
Having won 13 of its last 14 games, Texas A&M may be one of the hottest teams in America heading into the NCAA Women’s Tournament. But senior guard Aqua Franklin has a different view.
"We’re the most humble team in America," Franklin said.
The 11th-ranked Aggies must wait until 6 p.m. Monday to learn if they have earned a No. 2 seed in the field of 64. ESPN will unveil the bracket during an hour-long show. The network will also broadcast all 63 games through the Women’s Final Four in Tampa, Fla.
A&M (26-7) and Baylor (24-6) have both scheduled watch parties for their fans. A&M fans can watch the show at the Above The Rim club inside Reed Arena. Baylor fans can watch with the Lady Bears at the Ferrell Center.
Connecticut, North Carolina, Tennessee and Stanford may have the inside track to the No. 1 seeds. But several regional teams will be watching with their fingers crossed.
Texas coach Gail Goestenkors believes the Longhorns (21-12) should get into the NCAAs after a strong closing run. UT missed the tournament the last two years. This season, the Longhorns won six games against Top-25 teams and rank 26th in the NCAA-approved RPI ratings.

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Ole Miss and Mississippi State usually hook up on the baseball diamond in May, when the SEC Tournament is approaching.
Not this year.
Mississippi State and Ole Miss open SEC play today in Starkville, while the SEC Tournament - the SEC men’s basketball tournament - is being played in Atlanta.
It’s not an ideal situation, to say the least, but the fifth-ranked Rebels (11-4) and the Bulldogs (7-7) will forge ahead. Game One is at 3 p.m. today at MSU’s Dudy Noble Field.
“If you had your choice, you’d like to play (Ole Miss) later, but that is the way the ol’ computer kicked it out,” MSU coach Ron Polk said. “It conflicts with the SEC Tournament and our basketball team has played so well again. We have a lot of fans at the basketball tournament that my have otherwise come to Dudy Noble.
“It will hurt our crowd a little bit, plus the fact we’re not playing real well right now with a very inexperienced team.”
Ole Miss will start junior right-hander Lance Lynn (3-0, 1.69 ERA) today while Polk will go with freshman left-hander Forrest Moore (1-1, 6.57). Picayune’s Justin Pigott will start Saturday for the Bulldogs, while Bianco will counter with hard-throwing junior Cody Satterwhite. State’s Ricky Bowen gets the call Sunday while Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco will turn to left-hander Nathan Baker.

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When ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi joined Gambo and Ash earlier in the week, he discussed why Arizona State should not be in the NCAA tournament.
He used a bunch of fancy statistics like the RPI, SOS and their non-conference SOS - which is exactly what is wrong with the NCAA Tournament selection process.
It has become too much about numbers and not using common sense.
Over the course of an NCAA season you can watch a lot of college basketball. I haven’t watched every team that is on the bubble, but I have watched a decent amount of programs play throughout the season. I’m not sure how many teams the members of the NCAA Committee have watched, but if they have taken in a couple ASU games, it would seem obvious that the Sun Devils should be apart of the 65 team field.
Here is a look at the Sun Devils resume and some teams competing with them:
ASU went .500 in the toughest conference in the country prior to the Pac-10 Tournament. The Sun Devils a solid non-conference win against Xavier and a bad loss against Illinois on a neutral court, but did not play for two weeks before that game. If injuries are taken into account, why not a team being rusty in their first game of the season? They swept Arizona, split with Oregon and beat Stanford and USC at home. A win against UCLA or Washington State would have clinched a spot for them, but their resume is still good enough to get in between an 8-12 seed.

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LAS VEGAS - The status rewards a team for its regular-season success, and conceivably provides an easier path to the championship game.
But being the No. 1 seed in a conference tournament doesn’t guarantee raising the trophy and cutting down the nets when it’s over.
Battling an opponent’s sense of urgency and fighting their own complacency, more than a few favorites have been sent home early.
The 24th-ranked Brigham Young men’s basketball team is the top seed again in the Mountain West Conference tournament, and opens play this afternoon against No. 9 Colorado State in the quarterfinals at the Thomas & Mack Center.
CSU (7-24) defeated No. 8 Wyoming 68-63 victory on Wednesday to snap a 17-game losing streak despite playing without 7-foot center Stuart Creason (foot).
If BYU needed an extra cautionary reminder about the madness of March, the top-seeded Utah women provided it Wednesday. Winners of 22 straight games, the Utes were upset by a Colorado State team that entered the tournament on a 20-game slide.
The Cougars earned the top tournament billing last year and reached the title game before falling to UNLV on its home floor.
Only two No. 1 seeds in the previous seven years of the men’s tournament have won the title, but BYU (25-6) believes it has enough motivation to defy the odds.

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