To conclude a wild three hours, Syracuse found out it’s playing South Alabama.

The problem is it’s in the National Invitation Tournament, not the NCAA Tournament.

Syracuse (22-10, 10-6), which seemed to be a lock to reach the NCAA Tournament, was left out of the 65-team championship tournament announced Sunday evening. The shock wasn’t exclusive to fans and commentators, but also felt by Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim.

‘Obviously we are disappointed,’ Boeheim said in a Sunday night press conference, transcribed on SUAthletics.com. ‘We finished 10-6 in the league, which is fifth place, and we thought that would be enough, but the committee didn’t agree with us. There is nothing we can do about that. I know in our league, a 10-6 team has never not gotten into the NCAA Tournament.’

The South Alabama game will played Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Carrier Dome.

After SU beat Georgetown on Feb. 26, the consensus among coaches, players and analysts was that the Orange was in the Tournament. Any remaining suspicion was all but eliminated after the Orange beat Connecticut Wednesday in the opening round of the Big East tournament.

However, it was not enough to convince the NCAA Tournament selection committee.

‘Our job is to select the 34 best al-large teams in the eyes of 10 committee members in fairest, most equitable way we can,’ selection committee chairman Gary Walters said in an interview on ESPN.

Bubble teams like Arkansas (21-13, 7-9 SEC), Stanford (18-12, 10-8 Pacific-10), Purdue (21-11, 9-7 Big Ten) and Old Dominion all made the Tournament over the Orange, among others. So did Villanova and Marquette, two teams that finished behind SU in the Big East standings and the Orange beat during the season.

‘If winning games in a major conference doesn’t get you in, then I’m not sure what does get you in,’ Boeheim said.

Two areas of concern for SU’s Tournament hopes have been the non-conference schedule, which is heavy on mid-major teams and almost exclusively at the Carrier Dome, and the unbalanced Big East schedule.

‘We’d still be 10-6 in the league, so if you look at a non-league win, I don’t see how that would make any difference,’ Boeheim said. ‘If 10-6 in the Big East isn’t good enough to get us in, then I don’t think we should be in the Big East. That’s the way I look at it.’

It leaves the Orange playing in the afterthought NIT for the first time since 2002, when it reached the finals. The NIT semifinals and finals are at Madison Square Garden.

Teams of SU’s profile have a history of not playing well in the NIT. It’s considered a letdown from the prestigious NCAA Tournament.

‘Our four seniors have been in the Tournament every year, so that will be difficult to adjust to,’ Boeheim said. ‘It’s not like they were in the NCAA one year, then the NIT. The NCAA Tournament is all they know. It will be very difficult for them to get geared up for the NIT.’

Published on March 14, 2007 at 12:00 pm