Snubbed get NIT bids

Temple, Old Dominion, Colorado State and Richmond will have to settle for a No. 1 seed in the National Invitation Tournament.

The first four teams left out of the NCAA tournament were automatically given the top seeds for the first time in the NIT field, which was announced Sunday.

Temple (23-10), which finished third in the American, was passed over after losing to SMU in the conference tournament.

The Owls will now try to make a run in the NIT, starting with Wednesday’s home game against Bucknell.

“It’s an agonizing situation to wonder what’s going to happen all throughout this day. Now the angst is over, the disappointment reigns, but hope is still out there that we can finish this season strong with another tournament,” Temple coach Fran Dunphy said.

Temple wasn’t the only AAC team snubbed by the NCAA tournament committee. The league got just two teams in the top tournament – league champion SMU and Cincinnati – while teams like Tulsa (22-10) and last year’s national champion, Connecticut (20-14), were relegated to the NIT.

Notable high majors in the field include Pittsburgh, Stanford, Texas A&M, Miami, Illinois, Alabama – which plans on competing despite dismissing coach Anthony Grant earlier Sunday – and Arizona State.