In faculty basketball’s mid-major leagues, profitable the convention event is commonly the one reliable approach for a staff to safe an N.C.A.A. event bid.
However even earlier than the Bellarmine males’s staff beat Jacksonville, 77-72, within the ASUN Convention championship sport on Tuesday, it had no shot at taking part within the nationwide event.
Bellarmine, a non-public, Catholic college in Louisville, Ky., with about 2,400 undergraduate college students, reclassified to Division I from Division II final season. Underneath N.C.A.A. guidelines, it should full a four-year transition interval to make sure it may possibly deal with rule adjustments and subsist on the larger degree, throughout which era it’s ineligible for the nationwide event.
So whereas the Knights had home-court benefit and the assist of their followers on Tuesday at Freedom Corridor, in addition they had the backing of Jacksonville State in Alabama. With Bellarmine precluded from receiving the automated bid to the N.C.A.A. event, the spot as a substitute fell to Jacksonville State, regardless of its loss to Jacksonville within the ASUN event semifinals, as a result of Jacksonville State gained the regular-season championship. This would be the first N.C.A.A. event the Gamecocks have performed in because the 2016-17 season.
For the Knights, taking part in any video games past the convention event might have appeared unlikely after an 0-5 begin, although the losses had been to good groups. Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport stated in a postgame information convention that the “management kicked in” from staff captains at that time within the season.
Davenport stated the potential of his staff taking part in within the Nationwide Invitational Match was “completely out of any management” as a result of it’s run by the N.C.A.A. He talked about the Faculty Basketball Invitational, which the Knights performed in final yr, as a postseason risk.
“I don’t know the way any coach at any degree, any sport may very well be extra proud than I’m,” he stated.
Bellarmine gained the ASUN event with assist from the 3-point shot, a key element of its success in Division II: The Knights shot 40.1 p.c from 3-point vary through the 2019-20 season, after they closed their Division II tenure by incomes a N.C.A.A. event bid earlier than the coronavirus pandemic pressured its cancellation. And so they made a program-best 312 3-point pictures in 2016-17, after they made considered one of their 4 Division II Remaining 4 appearances of the 2010s.
On Tuesday, the Knights shot 12 of 25 from lengthy vary. CJ Fleming shot 4 of 11 from 3-point vary and led all scorers with 27 factors. Dylan Penn added 22 factors on 9 of 15 capturing from the sector and gained the event’s Most Helpful Participant Award.
The impossibility of reaching the N.C.A.A. event didn’t dampen the joy of Bellarmine followers, who rushed the courtroom after the ultimate buzzer.
“I seemed again on the bench and noticed all them coming,” Fleming stated. “I circled and we had been simply getting swarmed. Such an superior feeling.”
Final yr’s ASUN males’s event ultimate was additionally dogged by the specter of the transition interval. Liberty obtained the convention’s computerized bid to the N.C.A.A. event earlier than tip-off due to North Alabama’s ineligibility, then it gained the sport anyway.
Different groups have additionally missed out on the nationwide event due to the transition interval. Simply final season, the California Baptist ladies’s program had an undefeated run to the Western Athletic Convention event title, however couldn’t take part within the N.C.A.A. event.
Together with Jacksonville State, Bryant, Delaware, Wright State, No. 1 Gonzaga and South Dakota State additionally clinched computerized bids on Tuesday.
In Bryant’s sport, a festive environment bubbled over within the second half as the house staff dominated the Northeast Convention event championship. The victory over Wagner despatched the Bulldogs to their first N.C.A.A. event since they moved to Division I in 2008, however it should even be remembered for a delay of greater than 20 minutes due to a battle close to the 2 scholar sections with Bryant main by 36 factors with lower than 5 minutes left.
Police on the Chace Athletic Heart, Bryant’s on-campus area in Smithfield, R.I., escorted followers, together with a lot of the Wagner contingent, from the stands. Wagner’s Will Martinez unsuccessfully tried to get into the bleachers and was ejected for leaving the bench space.
