By Matt Weiner (@mattweiner20) – Basketball Beat Reporter
Photo via Titus Wilkinson of The Spear
Disappointed … felt deserving … can’t control it … time to move on.
The cycle of sentiments shared by point guard Omari Moore and head coach Tim Miles the morning after finding out SJSU (20-13, 10-8 MW) missed the NIT and settled with the CBI.
“What’s there to talk about?” Miles joked.
For Spartan Nation, the question is, ‘where to begin?’
The Spartans just celebrated their first Mountain West Tournament win in program history en route to the first 20-win season since 1981 — SJSU’s only NIT appearance and second-to-last postseason appearance.
On one hand, the path to achieving the first postseason win in program history got much easier.
However, on the other, Moore said, “It’s definitely disappointing. That’s something that we felt like we were good enough to be in, or maybe even deserved to be in.” For an NIT appearance would’ve been one final memento of SJSU’s miracle season.
“If you put those last eight teams in and ran the computer simulations, you probably have two or three points difference one way or another. You know, I mean, that’s a really close game,” said Miles, the 2022-23 Mountain West Coach of the Year.
Miles pointed out that SJSU has more quad wins (3) than Santa Clara (1), the lowest NET-ranking team in the NIT. “My point is, is that there’s not a lot of difference. That’s where the subjectivity comes in.”
Moreover, the Spartans topped the Broncos in their head-to-head matchup last fall.
When the NIT selection show wrapped up on ESPNU Sunday night, the broadcast didn’t mention which teams were on the bubble teams and why they didn’t make it. It left SJSU and its fans completely in the dark. Only leading to further speculation.
“It’ll be kind of cool to hear,” Moore said, “but it was a decision that they decided to make, so we just got to continue to go with it.” It’s evident that the decision was based upon predictive measurements like NET and Kenpom and not a happily digestible “Rudy” storyline — a tenet of March Madness.
SJSU finished No. 95 in the NET and No. 93 in Kenpom, much lower compared to the final seeds; Santa Clara (No. 84 in NET and No. 82 in Kenpom), Seton Hall (No. 77 in NET and No. 70 in Kenpom), and Virginia Tech (No. 76 in NET and No. 81 in Kenpom).
When Miles took over in 2021, two years after being fired from Nebraska, SJSU had gone 20-93 in the previous four seasons under Jean Prioleau. Miles’ 8-23 in his first campaign in a disastrous injury riddled season where SJSU used wings instead of centers for most of it. It marked SJSU’s fifth-straight single-digit win season.
A year later, SJSU can triple that win total by winning the CBI. They come in as the No. 2 seed and will face No. 15 seed Southern Indiana (257 in NET and 270 in Kenpom), a first-year Division I program.
Moore is the only player left over from the Prioleau regime after sticking through three disastrous seasons and became SJSU’s first Mountain West Player of the Year. His 20.1 points per conference game led SJSU to its first double-digit win conference season since 1994.
Three of the 10 wins came against three of the four Mountain West teams heading to the NCAA Tournament.
The first one came against Utah State behind Moore’s 27-point performance, next over Boise State in overtime and lastly, Moore’s 26-point and 10-assist double-double showing to stun Nevada in overtime in the conference tournament.
SJSU was the only team to offer Moore a scholarship and it came after he graduated from high school.
But even he wouldn’t buy into his own team’s hype if he was selecting.
“If I was on the committee I would unbiasedly just base it off the facts, not so much feelings,” said Moore.
Based on Moore’s facts don’t care about your feelings mentality, SJSU’s resume does have enough holes to be left out.
They’ve been blown out six times. Justifiable blowouts, nonetheless, with four coming against the top 37 teams in the NET and was swept by NIT’s No. 3 seed UNM.
Then comes the three heart-breaking last-second losses.
First against Pacific on Dec. 17 when Sage Tolbert missed two free throw’s with SJSU down 59-58 with 10 seconds left. The second coming against Boise State after Marcus Shaver Jr. lived up to his ‘Big Shot Shaver’ monicker.
The third came at Utah State on Jan. 21 when Moore slipped, fell and turned the ball over with 28 seconds left and the game tied at 74.
If SJSU won one of those would that’ve been enough? Maybe two? Maybe all three?
What if SJSU topped SDSU in the semi-finals of the Mountain West Tournament?
Without an explanation of why SJSU didn’t make the NIT revealed, it’s currently impossible to know.
Speculation can track back to questioning if SJSU didn’t make the NIT because of its own manageable non-conference schedule.
Coming into the season, the competition faced aligned with SJSU’s current status. Scheduling tough, competitive matchups would only plummet confidence and team morale heading into Mountain West play.
Furthermore, Miles mentioned that numerous games were left over from contracts they were previously fulfilling, such as the bout with Northern Colorado.
“If we keep our team intact next year, you’re trying to go out and schedule for the NCAA at large,” said Miles. “You’re trying to find quad one games, anywhere you can, anyway you can. If you’re building a program trying to discover a winner, you’re trying to get as many equitable games as you can.”
But for SJSU, the hypotheticals are like a dog chasing its tail.
“The most difficult part is not having control over their decisions,” said Miles. “We feel like we did as much as we could to try to get into it. And, you know, they thought otherwise.”
On the other hand, SJSU’s chances of winning a postseason tournament and surpassing the 1981 team for most wins in school skyrocketed.
“Initially at first it can be a little bit discouraging when we didn’t make the tournament that we wanted to make but you know, we all just want to win,” said Moore. “It’s not really difficult for us to rally together and hopefully find a way to win out there.”