Okay, so it’s been a few days now. It’s time to come to grips with a few things.
ODU made their free throws down the stretch.
That’s cool.
Alex Loughton threw a great pass and Isaiah Hunter made a great finish.
That’s cool, too.
Nobody but the ESPN camera crew saw Jeff Capel and like three other Rams all make little T’s with their hands when they had the ball and were down by just 2 points.
That’s not so cool.
But still, it’s time to admit that Old Dominion outlasted VCU in a great Colonial Athletic Association championship game that ended up leading SportCenter that night had a play win ESPN’s top play for that day.
As funny as all the new groups on thefacebook are (the fan club for referee Steve Gordon has 43 members and counting as of Wednesday night), they harp on the fact that the Rams lost instead of getting to the real question.
What’s next?
The Rams finished the season 19-12 and dropped a conference championship game to a Monarchs team whose 28 wins are just one fewer than No. 1 Illinois (It’s also one more than unranked Winthrop, but that’s beside the point).
VCU is one of four CAA schools among the top 100 in the Ratings Percentage Index.
So let’s see. Subtract the 65 teams in the NCAA tournament, and that leaves you with 35.
How many teams get invited to the National Invitational Tournament again? 40?
So it only makes sense for the Rams to go right?
Hofstra coach Tom Pecora thinks so. As a matter a fact, so should his Pride and the Seahawks of UNC Wilmington.
Judging by his reaction after losing to VCU on Sunday, UNCW head coach Brad Brownell would have a seizure if his team wasn’t invited to New York.
“We finished second. One of those teams is going to the NCAAs, if not both.” Brownell said of the Rams and the Monarchs. “If we’re not playing in the NIT then I’ll be extremely disappointed in our league.”
But what about Jeff Capel? After all, he did ball for Duke.
Imagine if somehow the world was turned on its head, the Bills won the Super Bowl, Al Sharpton was president and the Blue Devils didn’t make the Big Dance.
It’s hard to picture head coach Mike Krzyzewski cheesing as he and J.J. Reddick hopped a flight to the Big Apple.
The Not Invited Tournament gets no respect, and you don’t have to look back that far to find an example. Georgetown missed the NCAA tournament in 2000, but dominated in the NIT.
The Hoyas were so proud of the accomplishment that they ended up hanging a replica of their NIT championship banner above a urinal in their locker room “to remind us every day of what happened last year,” said then head coach Craig Esherick.
The last time the NIT got respect, Rerun was still asking Dwayne “What’s Happening.”
So if the Rams do get the nod from the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association, does Capel take the invite and tape it above one of the stalls at the Siegel Center, or does he accept, fly off to Madison Square Garden and say, “Hey, hey, hey!”