Aztecs cite injuries and venue challenges as the reason to end the season without playing in any postseason tournaments.
Snub ends streak of five straight NCAA appearances
Coach Brian Dutcher was hopeful, but realistic about the Aztecs playing in the postseason. He issued a statement that said the Aztecs, who finished the season at 22-11, would not accept an invitation to play in the NIT or any other postseason event.
“I’m disappointed for our players and our great fans that we weren’t selected to compete
in this year’s NCAA Tournament. There are only 68 spots available and unfortunately, we didn’t get one of them,” said Dutcher.
“Physically, our team is very banged up at this point. If we had received a bid for the NDAA Tournament, we would have competed. However, with where we are today physically I don’t feel that playing in another postseason event would benefit us.”
The 22 wins are the most ever by an Aztec team not to play in the postseason. Based on their record, it was likely that the Aztecs would have been a number one seed in the 32-team NIT. The kicker meant the Aztecs would host each of the first three rounds, but the NCAA Tournament has games schedule at Viejas Arena this week and would have left the Aztecs scrambling to find a suitable location to play. The NIT is not as a prestigious event as it once was and has seen some teams in recent year choose not to participate. Five Mountain West teams chose to play this season: Colorado State, Nevada, New Mexico, UNLV and Wyoming.
Aztecs injuries played a major factor. Miles Heide has a broken hand, Miles Byrd was hobbled, suffering an injury in the conference tournament final against Utah State. The league also suffered from an extreme case of parity. This doesn’t play so well in a non power conference as it reduces the number of teams that will be selected.
Dutcher added his perspective to this argument. “We fought hard all year. In a league that featured seven teams that won at least 20 games, we completed the regular season alone in second place and reached the championship game of our conference tournament. All those are accomplishments we can be proud of, but in the committee’s eyes,it just wasn’t enough to be included in the field. I’ve said it all year, parity haas hurt our league this year. If you’re in a power conference, the parity is fantastic. You get eight, nine teams in, but in the Mountain West, parity is not a good thing. There wasn’t enough separation at the top.”
Replacing the Aztecs will be North Carolina State, Texas, SMU and Miami (Ohio). Regardless of the snub, the Aztecs played well this season and expect to carry the momentum forward into the next season in the newly formed Pac-12 Conference. They will struggle with the mid-major curse in the Pac-12, where again teams will struggle to gain recognition and respect. Expect one, perhaps two teams to advance next season. Until then, it’s March baby! Let the Madness begin!
