The Conference Champion Not Going to the N.C.A.A. Tournament

In faculty basketball’s midmajor leagues, profitable the convention match is commonly the one reliable method for a group to safe an N.C.A.A. match bid.

However even earlier than the Bellarmine males’s group beat Jacksonville, 77-72, within the ASUN Convention championship sport on Tuesday, it had no shot at collaborating within the nationwide match.

Bellarmine, a personal, 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 deal with rule modifications and subsist on the increased degree, throughout which era it’s ineligible for the nationwide match.

So whereas the Knights had home-court benefit and the assist of their followers on Tuesday at Freedom Corridor, additionally they had the backing of Jacksonville State in Alabama. With Bellarmine precluded from receiving the automated bid to the N.C.A.A. match, the spot as a substitute fell to Jacksonville State, regardless of its loss to Jacksonville within the ASUN match semifinals, as a result of Jacksonville State gained the regular-season championship. This would be the first N.C.A.A. match the Gamecocks have performed in because the 2016-17 season.

For the Knights, enjoying any video games past the convention match 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 group captains at that time within the season.

Davenport stated the opportunity of his group enjoying 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 could possibly be extra proud than I’m,” he stated.

Bellarmine gained the ASUN match with assist from the 3-point shot, a key element of its success in Division II: The Knights shot 40.1 % from 3-point vary throughout the 2019-20 season, once they closed their Division II tenure by incomes a N.C.A.A. match bid earlier than the coronavirus pandemic compelled its cancellation. They usually made a program-best 312 3-point pictures in 2016-17, once they made certainly one of their 4 Division II Ultimate 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 taking pictures from the sphere and gained the match’s Most Priceless Participant Award.

The impossibility of reaching the N.C.A.A. match didn’t dampen the thrill 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 match remaining was additionally dogged by the specter of the transition interval. Liberty obtained the convention’s computerized bid to the N.C.A.A. match 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 match due to the transition interval. Simply final season, the California Baptist ladies’s program had an undefeated run to the Western Athletic Convention match title, however couldn’t take part within the N.C.A.A. match.

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 group dominated the Northeast Convention match championship. The victory over Wagner despatched the Bulldogs to their first N.C.A.A. match since they moved to Division I in 2008, however it can even be remembered for a delay of greater than 20 minutes due to a struggle close to the 2 pupil sections with Bryant main by 36 factors with lower than 5 minutes left.

The police on the Chace Athletic Heart, Bryant’s on-campus enviornment in Smithfield, R.I., escorted followers, together with many 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.