Posted on: Sunday, March 14, 2004

'Bows waiting to hear about NIT invitation

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

The University of Hawai'i men's basketball team will have its fingers crossed and its ti leaves waving today.

The Rainbow Warriors are hoping to extend their season with a bid to the National Invitation Tournament today. The fields for the NCAA Tournament and NIT will be announced today.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Hawai'i head coach Riley Wallace said. "It's not in our hands anymore, so we just have to wait and hope that we get picked."

Based on the numbers, the 'Bows appear to have a legitimate shot at the NIT.

For starters, Hawai'i is 19-11 after a quarterfinal loss to Rice in the Western Athletic Conference Tournament at Fresno, Calif.

The 'Bows were selected to the NIT last season with an 18-11 record.

Among the more than 250 teams not projected by ESPN to get into the NCAA Tournament, only 16 have won more games this season than Hawai'i.

A total of 105 Division I men's college basketball teams will get a chance to play during the postseason. The NCAA Tournament selects 65, then the NIT gets to choose the next 40.

"You'd like to think that we're at least in that top 105," Wallace said.

Hawai'i is ranked No. 85 in the latest Sagarin ratings, and will probably be in the same area in the final Rating Percentage Index (RPI) today.

However, the 'Bows went 3-7 in their last 10 games, including three consecutive losses to close the season.

"I just hope they realize we played the best teams in our conference on the road during that stretch," Wallace said.

Hawai'i's bid to the NIT could also depend on the other WAC teams.

Nevada beat Texas-El Paso for the WAC championship yesterday, but both teams are projected to be selected to the NCAA Tournament.

If so, three other WAC teams will look to get into the NIT: Hawai'i, Boise State and Rice. Among those three, the 'Bows may be the most attractive choice, even though they finished below Boise State and Rice in the WAC standings.

Teams wanting to participate in the NIT must submit an application, and Hawai'i athletic director Herman Frazier said he has asked for UH to host first- and second-round games at the Stan Sheriff Center.

"We can certainly draw more fans," Wallace said. "We just have to hope the WAC gets the respect it deserves and gets at least the two (into the NCAA) and three into the NIT."

Hawai'i averaged 7,265 tickets issued per home game this season, and will likely need to guarantee more than that to NIT officials to secure a home game.

"The fans were starting to come out at the end of the year, so I think they'd come out again," Wallace said.

In any case, the NIT does not necessarily select its teams based purely on wins and losses, or power ratings.

Foremost against Hawai'i is the logistics and cost. As Wallace put it: "Because our record isn't way up there, they may not want to pay to send another team all the way out to Hawai'i."

The 'Bows were sent on the road by the NIT last season, winning a first-round game at UNLV, then losing in the second round at Minnesota.

"I'm sure there was a lot of expenses in doing that, so I don't know if they'd want to send us over to the Mainland again, either," Wallace said.

However, the NIT field is expected to be filled mostly with teams from the East this season, so the 'Bows may be sent on the road again, if they are selected at all.

"We're not going to turn anything down," Wallace said. "But our first choice would be to stay home."

The NIT likes to bracket its teams based on geography, and the teams in the West generally did not have a good season.

There could be as few as three teams from the Pacific time zone that can be considered strong candidates for the NIT: Oregon, UNLV and Saint Mary's (Calif.).

"There may not be enough teams in the west for all the WAC teams to pair up with," Wallace said. "There's factors for us and against us. That's why it's so hard to say what's going to happen."

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8101.