Three weeks after NCAA snubs, Colorado and Alabama meet in NIT semis

On Selection Sunday, several teams sweating the process out on the bubble likely let out an audible "WHAT? REALLY???" when VCU's name appeared on the screen.

Two of those teams, Colorado and Alabama, will meet Tuesday night in the NIT semifinals at Madison Square Garden.

"You never know what life is going to throw at you, and three weeks ago, 2 1/2 weeks ago, we were thrown a little curveball," Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. "And we hit it because our guys have responded the right way. They have not whined about it, cried about it, we're not going to do that.

"We were happy to be invited to the NIT, we're happy to be here and we want to relish this opportunity as best we can."

Boyle certainly deserves a heap of credit for that.

The Buffs closed the regular season by winning three of their last four games, including a 91-89 shocker against then-No. 5 Texas. Then, after beating Kansas State for a third time in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 tournament, it was assumed that they'd locked themselves into the NCAA tournament field.

Meanwhile, Alabama nipped Georgia in the SEC tournament quarterfinals ?�a game looked at as a potential NCAA tourney elimination tilt, of sorts. It was Bama's second victory over the Bulldogs in seven days.

Yet, that Sunday, Georgia was included in the field of 68. So were other surprises such as VCU, UAB and USC.

And both teams apparently were ticked about it.

Alabama got to New York City by winning three home games by an average margin of 15.3 points, paced by sophomore swingman Tony Mitchell. Colorado did the same by an average margin of 12.7, with sophomore guard averaging 25.5 points and 8.2 rebounds per game since the end of the regular season. Whoever prevails gets the winner of the first semifinal at Madison Square Garden between Wichita State and Washington State ?�two other one-time bubble teams whose hopes fizzled just before Selection Sunday.

The fire from the argument that both deserved to be in ahead of VCU has since been doused by the Rams' out-of-nowhere run to this weekend's Final Four in Houston.

But that hasn't cooled off Colorado or Alabama, which could end up playing one of this postseason's more entertaining games Tuesday night.

Ryan Greene also covers UNLV and the Mountain West Conference for the Las Vegas Sun. Read his Rebels coverage and follow him on Twitter.

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