Does the NIT want UNC Tar Heels?

GREENSBORO -- North Carolina wants to play in the NIT.

Now the question is: Does the NIT want UNC?

Les Robinson, N.C. State's former athletics director and a member of the eight-person NIT selection committee, said this morning he was not allowed to reveal who was on his list of 32 teams that he will submit to begin the selection process. (Each committee member submits a list, and they begin whittling down from there.)

"I would be surprised if they [the Tar Heels] weren't on the board, but I can say that about 25, 30 teams," he said, adding that that includes the Wolfpack, which
hasn't hurt themselves" by upsetting Clemson Thursday night in the ACC tournament's first round.

State faces Florida State in the league quarterfinals tonight.

Robinson, who was sitting in the airport preparing to fly to Indianapolis to meet with the committee, said that beating Georgia Tech on Thursday night would have helped UNC's chances, "but the thing is, a bunch of good teams lost in the first round."


Carolina's "plusses," he said, its .500 (16-16) record, a "respectable" RPI (No. 85 as of Monday, according to collegerpi.com), and some close losses. The NIT uses the same procedure as the NCAA to select its 32-team field, meaning injuries are taken into account.

That could help the Tar Heels, given that nine different UNC players missed at least one game because of an injury. One of those, Tyler Zeller - who missed 10 games - is back and playing well.

What could hurt the Tar Heels, as well as UNC-Charlotte, though, is the fact that the NIT automatically invites the regular-season champion of any NCAA Division I conference that doesn't make the NCAA tournament. So far, there are eight automatic qualifiers: Kent State, Weber State, Troy, Coastal Carolina, Quinnipiac, Jacksonville, Stony Brook and Jackson State.

That leaves only 24 more invitations, as of right now.

The NIT field will be announced at 9 p.m. on ESPNU; first-round games begin Tuesday and Wednesday.

UNC coach Roy Williams, who never has coached in the NIT, said his team would accept an invitation if asked.

"Are we worthy enough to be invited? That I don't know,'' he said Thursday night. "There's people ... that get to make those decisions, maybe that won't even invite us. But if somebody invites me to go play, we're going to go play."

Point guard Larry Drew II said the team wanted to continue to play to prepare for the future - and maybe find a way to make a brighter end for this disappointing season. He knows there are fans out there who think the Tar Heels - who won the NCAA title last season - should turn down the NIT and end the season at .500. Asked how he would respond to that mindset, he said:

"To those people, honestly, to those people, I would say that they can't have their way all the time. Some people are just so spoiled, man. Especially Carolina fans, just because, you know, the whole tradition. It's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just the way it is. But to those fans: Yes, we haven't been performing up to the standards of the usual North Carolina basketball team, but we can't be perfect all the time, and we're human, too."

-- Robbi Pickeral