STHS grad not thrilled with NIT bid
By Samuel Benson, Deseret News
PROVO — With a No. 2 seed and a first-round home game, BYU has to be feeling good about its NIT seeding. For seven-seed UAB, not so much.
The Blazers won the Conference USA regular-season championship, but a first-round loss in the conference tournament ended their NCAA Tournament hopes. UAB was expected to be rewarded with a favorable NIT bid but was instead given one of the last eight seeds.
“I think players feel a little disrespected by the seeding, but head coach Jerod Haase doesn’t think there is a lot of separation between seeds one through eight,” said Drew Champlin of AL.com. “I don’t think they had BYU in the back of their minds when it came to opponents, but that’s just how the draw fell.”
Haase, a South Tahoe High School grad, has a point.