Shortly after the NCAA Tournament field was announced Sunday night, the NIT announced its field.
As expected, three Big East teams are in the NIT — Georgetown, Notre Dame and Providence.
Also selected for the NIT were Davidson and star guard Stephen Curry, and Kentucky, which had played in the past 17 consecutive NCAA tournaments.
Seton Hall, which finished 17-15, including one victory over a Division I-AA program, is done for the season unless it winds up in one of these other third-rate postseason tournaments. Cincinnati, once a potential NCAA bubble team, is also out.
“If you take two or three teams in the NIT, you gotta start talking about Seton Hall,” Pirates coach Bobby Gonzalez said after his team lost to Syracuse in the Big East Tournament. “I think we deserve it. We won 17 games and we won eight league games this year in this league.”
Looks like the Pirates will have to look ahead to next year, when the future should be bright with the additions of transfers Herb Pope, Keon Lawrence and Jeff Robinson and 6-11 Melvyn Oliver, plus whatever commitments they get this spring.
Unfortunately, Paul Gause won’t get a chance to break Dan Calandrillo’s all-time steals leader, but he certainly enjoyed a terrific career.