Did Marshall Deserve a NIT Bid?

When the NIT Tournament field was announced many Herd fans were disappointed Marshall was not listed. Lets take a clear look at the NIT’s last few at large selections and see how they stack up against Marshall.

*Quick note: This years NIT field included 14 automatic qualifiers, regular-season conference champions not selected to the NCAA Tournament. They include Bethune-Cookman, Coastal Carolina, College of Charleston, Fairfield, Florida Atlantic, Kent State, Long Beach State, McNeese State, Milwaukee, Missouri State, Murray State, St. Mary’s, Texas Southern, and Vermont.

Out of the NIT’s at large selections these schools had the weakest tournament resumes:

New Mexico
Nebraska
Northwestern
Wichita State

Here are those four schools tournament resumes and Marshall’s:

Marshall
RPI: 54
Record: 22-11
SOS: 72
VS. Top 25: 1-1
VS. Top 50: 3-7
VS. Top 100: 7-10
Best Wins: WVU(21), Memphis(28)
Worst Losses: Chattanooga(199)

New Mexico
RPI: 66
Record: 21-12
SOS: 80
VS. Top 25: 2-5
VS Top 50: 2-5
VS Top 100: 5-8
Best Wins: BYU(twice 5), CSU(51), Colorado(65)
Worst Losses: Utah(118), Wyoming(263)

Nebraska
RPI:88
Record: 19-12
SOS: 66
VS Top 25: 1-4
VS. Top 50: 3-6
VS Top 100: 7-9
Best Wins: Texas(11), TA&M(29), Missouri(37)
Worst Losses: TT(116), Davidson(188)

Northwestern
RPI: 87
Record: 18-13
SOS: 71
VS Top 25: 0-6
VS Top 50: 1-11
VS Top 100: 5-13
Best Wins: Illinois(46), Michigan(53)
Worst Losses: Minnesota(84)

Wichita State
RPI: 59
Record: 24-8
SOS: 107
VS Top 25: 0-2
VS Top 50: 0-5
VS Top 100: 3-6
Best Wins: Tulsa(81), Indiana State(84)
Worst Losses: Southern Illinois(207)

I don’t think Marshall stacks up well with Nebraska and New Mexico. Even though the Cornhuskers RPI is 34 spots higher than Marshall’s they collected impressive victories over Texas, Texas A&M, and Missouri, all tournament teams. New Mexico and Marshall have similar resumes but NM plays in the Mountain West Conference. C-USA had a lot of quality teams this season but the Mountain West was better with BYU, San Diego State, and UNLV.

You can make a very good argument that Marshall has a better tournament resume than Northwestern and Wichita State. In fact, I can’t find a single measurement that makes Wichita State superior to Marshall. The Herd has a better RPI, SOS, and Record vs. top 100 competition. On top of that the Shockers best win came at home against Tulsa, 82-79. Marshall defeated Tulsa 79 – 61 in the Cam Henderson Center. Northwestern’s best attribute is the lack of a bad loss. Beyond that they don’t stack up with Marshall in top 50 wins or victories over quality opponents.

Yes Marshall fans, be angry, the Herd got snubbed.