Marty Gordon
NRVsports@ourvalley.org
Radford University men’s basketball coach Mike Jones is coming off one of his and the school’s best season ever, but when basketball selection Sunday was finished, the Highlanders did not garner any respect. Instead of at least an at-large bid in either postseason tournament, they will be left sitting in front of the television. While RU officials are disappointed, they are still proud of this season.
Nathan Wise, a sports communications coordinator at RU, said Monday the program has had a fantastic season in 2018-19.
“We won 22 games, defeated the first ranked opponent in program history, earned a share of the Big South regular season title for the first time in a decade and reached the conference championship game for the second consecutive year,” he said.
Last year, Radford won the Big South conference tournament and advanced to play in a field of 68.
Then, after winning the school’s first NCAA game ever, they advanced to play eventual national champion, Villanova. We know how that one ended, but there was some glimmer of hope after this year’s squad took down both Texas and Notre Dame on the road.
There were also close games against Clemson and Maryland, both Power Five opponents. Radford would finish 22-11 with the biggest loss marking its schedule, a loss in the Big South championship to Gardner-Webb who got the conference’s automatic bid. The Highs finished 12-4 in conference play, and Wise knows all too well that the school has to win the Big South in order to punch their dance card.
“While we would have loved to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament or NIT, we knew it would be difficult to do so,” he said.
This season included a bolstered schedule of “big names,” something the school has been striving for, but they would finish 10-7 out of the Big South.
“The Big South has traditionally been a one-bid league and with so many top seeds in other conferences around the country losing in their tournaments, the bubble grew smaller and smaller every day. We’re extremely proud of the success our players and coaching staff experienced this season and we can’t wait to get to work on making the 2019-20 season even more successful,” Wise said.
This year, Radford beat Texas who finished 16-16, William & Mary (14-17), and Notre Dame (14-19). They also had close games against Maryland 78-64 and Clemson 74-66. All that looks good on paper, but most of those opponents simply did not have a good year. While they caught the eye of the nation, they still didn’t catch the interest of the selection committee.
The sting of being just one of those mid-majors left setting at home is starting to resonate throughout the country as the Power Five conferences continue to dominate the selections.
The school’s “Net ranking” placed them at number at 144 out of 353 schools, well below the likes of Boston College, Xavier, East Tennessee State and Vermont. Radford was the highest ranked Big South school other than tournament champion Gardner Webb and Campbell with the latter receiving a bid to the National Invitational Tournament.
Radford also did not receive a bid to College Basketball Invitational Tourney. The CBI selects 16 teams that are not selected to the NCAA or NIT. Each school had to pay a $50,000 entry fee to participate.
Radford did participate in the CBI two years ago.
Meanwhile, the Radford University women are headed to the Big Dance after winning this weekend’s Big South tourney win.
