Better put a fresh shine on those dancing shoes of Air Force basketball coach Jeff Bzdelik.
Quite unexpectedly, the Falcons received an invitation to the Big Dance.
Did they deserve one of 65 bids to the NCAA Tournament?
Wait, don’t answer.
Here’s a better question: Does it really matter?
You can hear the screaming about the inclusion of Air Force all the way across the county, on college campuses from Cincinnati to Omaha, where snubbed players are convinced the Falcons must have raided the mailbox for an invitation postmarked to a more deserving team.
Let ’em whine.
“You might not believe it, but I knew all along we were going to the Big Dance,” said Air Force athletic director Hans Mueh, who never lost the faith.
Air Force was awarded a No. 13 seed. The Falcons drew Illinois, which appeared in the Final Four a year ago. They should feel lucky.
Despite winning 24 games, when Air Force bombed out of the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Conference tournament on Thursday, with the Falcons playing as if afraid to show their true talent during a disheartening two-point loss to Wyoming, they walked off the court being dissed with chants of “NIT, NIT.”
Fans and power brokers of the college game assumed Air Force had blown its chance to participate in March Madness.
When CBS revealed the bids to a national audience late Sunday afternoon and Air Force appeared on the screen with a confirmed date in San Diego on Thursday, the faces made by the analysts were the most disgusted I’ve seen on TV since Paula Abdul’s last spat with Simon Cowell during “American Idol.”
It would not be the NCAA tourney without controversy. With the most wins in school history, Air Force earned a bid on merit, but not without legitimate debate.
“I’m very pleased that the committee, in my mind, did the right thing. And I’ll just leave it at that,” said Bzdelik, who was so excited upon hearing the news that he began running around his office at the academy.
If Missouri State or Hofstra has a beef with the selection committee, perhaps the complaints should more appropriately be directed at those No. 16 seeds from nowhere conferences that annually serve as sacrificial lambs for Duke or Connecticut to carve up in the tourney’s opening round.
The best argument in favor of the Falcons’ invitation as justice might be poetic. Forget the computer printouts and all the back-room politics involved in the picking of teams. The way I figure it, the hoops gods owed Air Force this one.
In recent years, if Joe Scott or Chris Mooney were not deserting the Falcons’ bench with wanderlust for a new coaching job, then star center Nick Welch was busting a foot and limping to the sideline. A program that had been the butt of jokes for decades was insulted when even the NIT ignored the team’s success in 2005. For all Bzdelik’s NBA experience, anything more than a .500 record for Air Force seemed unlikely this season.
Senior guard Antoine Hood persevered through it all. After being fired by the Denver Nuggets, Bzdelik turned down opportunities in the pros because his family loved Colorado.
“There was a lot of blood, sweat and tears, but we stuck together,” Hood said.
Know what you call a tourney bid that hit Air Force like a bolt out of the wild, blue yonder?
A blessing.
Sometimes, good things really do happen to good people.
Listen to Mark Kiszla at 12:15 p.m. today on 1060 AM and the Radio Colorado Network. He can be reached at 303-820-5438 or mkiszla@denverpost.com.
