March 13, 2000
Selection Sunday is prom night for college coaches, and New Mexico State's Lou Henson had that wallflower feeling after the Aggies' 22 wins weren't enough to get them into the NCAA tournament.
So Henson and the Aggies will settle for the National Invitation Tournament and a date with an old friend.
New Mexico State (22-9) will play Arizona State (18-12) in Tempe, Ariz., on Wednesday night in a first-round game. The Sun Devils are coached by Rob Evans, who played at New Mexico State for Henson in the late '60s, then was one of Henson's assistants for seven years.
"Isn't that something?" the 68-year-old Henson said Sunday night when he learned of the first-round pairing. "I think the world of him, and we've been friends through the years. If we have to go play somebody, I'd just as soon play Rob."
Henson recruited Evans out of junior college in 1966, and Evans played two seasons for Henson, who was building a program at NMSU that would take the Aggies to national prominence and a Final Four appearance in 1970.
The Aggies will be joined by cross-state rival New Mexico in the NIT. The Lobos (17-13) are home for South Florida (17-13) on Wednesday night.
The tournament opens Tuesday night with Tulane (20-10) at North Carolina State (17-12) and Wake Forest (17-14) at Vanderbilt (19-10).
Other games Wednesday night have Georgetown (18-14) at Virginia (19-11), North Carolina Charlotte (17-15) at Mississippi (17-13), Princeton (19-10) at Penn State (15-15), Delaware (24-7) at Villanova (19-12), Marquette (15-13) at Xavier (20-11), Michigan (15-13) at Notre Dame (18-14), Bowling Green (22-7) at Brigham Young (20-10), and Long Beach State (24-5) at California (16-14).
The first round concludes Thursday with Massachusetts (17-15) at Siena (23-8), Rutgers (15-15) at Kent (21-7), Southern Illinois (19-12) at Colorado (18-13) and Southern Methodist (21-8) at Southwest Missouri State (22-10).
New Mexico State was in the NCAAs last year, but lost to Utah State 71-66 in the championship game of the Big West tournament on Saturday. ASU's last chance to make the NCAA field disappeared with a 65-57 loss Saturday to Stanford, the South Region's No. 1 seed.
After the loss to Stanford, Evans still made a pitch for his team to the NCAA selection committee.
"I still think we're one of the top 64 teams," Evans said. "We're deserving of making the tournament."
Henson said despite the 22 wins, he knew the Aggies would have to beat Utah State and get the automatic bid from the Big West.
"I knew we had to win to get in. There were a lot of good teams that didn't get in. Long Beach State is a terrific team and they didn't get in, either," Henson said.
The Aggies played in this year's preseason NIT, beating Hofstra in Las Cruces and then losing to Arizona in Tucson. Both Hofstra and Arizona are in the NCAA tournament.