Seton Hall, Wake Forest, Indiana State and Villanova, some of the more prominent programs on the outside of the NCAA tournament cutline, will be No. 1 seeds in the National Invitation Tournament, which begins this week.
The Pirates, who finished 20-12 but lost to St. John’s in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament last week in New York, will host St. Joseph’s (21-13) on Wednesday.
Seton Hall was one of the programs that UConn coach Dan Hurley spoke about after his Huskies were selected as the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament Sunday. Hurley, a former Pirates guard, felt his alma mater should have made the NCAA.
“I’m probably just a little embarrassed for the league, for such a proud league,” Hurley said of the Big East, which ended up with three tournament teams, including Marquette and Creighton. “The whole thing is just kind of a shell game. And it just really comes down to what the committee values.”
The Demon Deacons (20-13) also tip off Wednesday, playing host to Appalachian State (27-6) after Wake Forest finished fifth in the ACC standings.
Indiana State (28-6), among several teams that seemed in line for an NCAA at-large berth before some of the conference tournament upsets last weekend, will host SMU (20-12) on Wednesday.
And the Wildcats (18-15), a program used to hearing its name for the NCAA tournament on Selection Sunday during former coach Jay Wright’s tenure, will play a rare postseason home game as well, taking on VCU (22-13) on Wednesday.
Among other notable storylines is the renewal of some old rivalries. UCF (17-15), in its first year in the Big 12 Conference, will host South Florida (24-7) on Wednesday in Orlando. The Bulls and Knights used to meet annually in the American Athletic Conference.
And Ohio State — after removing the interim head coach tag on Jake Diebler with a five-year deal that the school announced Sunday — will give its staff a chance to keep practicing with the Buckeyes at least a few more days. Ohio State (20-13) will host Cornell (22-7) on Tuesday.
Diebler replaced Chris Holtmann in mid-February after the seventh-year head coach was fired following a 4-10 start to Big Ten play. In his first game as interim head coach, Diebler led Ohio State to a 73-69 win over then-No. 2 Purdue. The Buckeyes went 6-2 after Diebler took over.