Boulder – In what has almost become the same old story, the Colorado basketball team was invited Sunday to play in the National Invitation Tournament.
As the No. 4 seed in their bracket, the Buffs will host Old Dominion at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Coors Events Center.
It marks the fourth time in 10 years that coach Ricardo Patton and his Buffs teams have been invited to play in the NIT after failing to qualify for the prize they pursued, the NCAA Tournament. Patton’s 1996-97 and 2002-03 teams made it to the NCAAs.
“We’re excited to move forward and be one of 105 teams that are still playing,” Patton said.
Maryland is the No. 1 seed in CU’s bracket. If the Buffs win and Maryland beats Fairleigh Dickinson, the Buffs will travel to College Park, Md., for their next game.
The Buffs (20-9) were once 15-3. At that point of the season Patton talked not only of getting his team into the NCAA field, but going deep. Then came a late-season collapse. The worst loss was the last one, an 86-53 drubbing by Texas A&M on Friday in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament in Dallas that likely knocked the Buffs out of the NCAA Tournament.
Despite that disappointment, Patton said he expects that “the maturity of the team will allow us to move forward and realize that this is still a great opportunity for us to continue to play basketball.”
“I’m disappointed for Colorado,” Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg said of the NCAA snub. “If you look at some teams that got in and they’d have a series with Colorado, I think Colorado would fare well against them.”
However, Weiberg chided conference schools for not putting together tougher nonconference schedules, thus hurting their chances for at-large bids.
“As a conference, we need to have a discussion about nonconference scheduling,” Weiberg said. “Our league plays too many opponents 250 and below (in RPI). That’s a problem.”
Patton, who has been criticized for weak nonconference scheduling, said, “Even though you try to play teams that have a great tradition, there’s just no way of knowing how good they’re going to be.”
He cited Utah, which was on CU’s schedule this season but had a down year.
Tickets for the Old Dominion game are $10-$25. Student admission is $4; the first 2,000 students will get in free.
Staff writer Tom Kensler contributed to this report.
Joseph Sanchez can be reached at 303 820-5458 or jsanchez@denverpost.com.
