Monday, March 10, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
THERE WAS just a glimmer of hope, Texas Tech having excused itself from NCAA Tournament consideration and two conference championship games earlier in the day having gone to favorites.
Had Tech been in and had underdogs Missouri and North Carolina State won their conference finals Sunday, UNLV wouldn't have had a rat's chance of going to the Big Dance.
But Tech, with still another eligibility problem, announced it would not accept an NCAA bid, 16-16 Missouri was unable to upset top-ranked Kansas (for a second time this season) and 16-13 N.C. State -- the eighth seed in the ACC tourney -- lost by 10 to fifth-ranked North Carolina.
That sequence of events -- which effectively eliminated three teams from potential berths in the NCAA Tournament -- had Rebels head coach Bill Bayno, as well as his players and the team's fans, crossing their fingers in anticipation. "Maybe we will get a little bit lucky," Bayno said moments before the brackets were announced. "We've got a chance. We're on the bubble with 15 or 20 other teams."
Fifteen minutes later the Rebels were off the bubble and relegated to the secondary National Invitation Tournament, the NCAA apparently not sufficiently impressed by UNLV's 20-9 record and recent spirited play.
Three other Western Athletic Conference members with 20 wins (Hawaii, TCU and Fresno State) were also shunned by the NCAA. In light of this, some will again question the WAC's clout at the national level.
Then again, CBS, which broadcast the tournament selection show, didn't even list UNLV among its top eight "bubble" teams, which is consistent with how the national media had approached the Rebels all along. It's as if the only people considering UNLV to be NCAA material were all living in Las Vegas.
Of course the Tournament Selection Committee has its hands tied to some extent by automatic bids to conference playoff champions. Inevitably, teams like Fairfield -- with a ghastly 11-18 record -- and Jackson State -- at 14-15 -- win their conference tournaments and are suddenly in the NCAA tourney. Deservedly or not, they're in while the Rebels are exiled to the NIT.
(Fairfield and Jackson State note: In the history of the NCAA Tournament, 11 previous teams made the field with losing records but only one didn't lose its first-round game. Bradley, in 1955, was 7-19 coming in and actually made it to the quarterfinals.)
It's a disappointment for UNLV, though hardly unexpected. At least the school and its fans can take some consolation from the fact the Tournament Selection Committee didn't bypass the Rebels in favor of a seventh Big Ten team, which would have been the equivalent of adding another Fairfield-like noncontender to the mix.
UNLV was saddened, yet it has no real complaint. Twenty wins wasn't quite enough and that lucky break Bayno knew it would take wasn't forthcoming.
However slight that door was ajar, the NCAA slammed it with the Rebels still outside looking in.
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