The golden bubble of NCAA dreams burst for the men's basketball team last night, only to be replaced with a new quest.

Instead of stepping on the coveted "Road to Denver," the Lions (21-8) are staying home for the National Invitation Tournament. At 7:30 Wednesday night they host Marquette (15-13) in front of ESPN cameras. Tickets are $4 each and go on sale this morning at Rec Hall.

Although continuing into postseason play is always considered a mark of success, the Lions still feel slighted in not making the NCAA Tournament.

"I felt we were right there," Coach Bruce Parkhill said. "I thought we were somewhere from 63 to 67 or 68."

Several teams with less impressive records were included in the NCAA field. Among those teams are Villanova (18-14), Indiana (18-10) and Notre Dame (16-12). These teams were cited for their highly competitive schedules and "quality" wins.

For example, Villanova finished its conference season at 9-9, but recorded two bludgeoning of highly ranked Syracuse. The Lions, on the other hand, were perceived as having a good record but soft schedule.

"I have a real hard time, regardless of the situation, feeling good about a team making the NCAA tournament with a below .500 record in their league," Parkhill said. "You pretty much determine what league you're in, you have your choice there. And the teams in the power leagues, by being in those leagues, have the guns to be competitive within those leagues. I just find it real hard to justify a team being in there with a below .500 record."

Another factor working against the Lions was the automatic bid system for conference championships. And a large number of upset victories reshaped who earned those bids.

For example, No. 24 Xavier was upset in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference Championship by Dayton, which would never have gone to the NCAA tournament otherwise. Thus, two spots were eaten up instead of one.

Also getting upset were teams such as UAB and Southwest Missouri. The upsets completely knocked out teams which should have earned berths.

With all the attention going the the participants in the NCAA tournament, especially the No. 1 seeds -- UConn (East), Michigan St. (Southeast), Oklahoma (Midwest) and UNLV (West), the NIT-bound occasionally suffer from a letdown.

Sometimes that letdown "I think (a letdown is) a distinct possibility," Parkhill said. "It's something that we've addressed already for the last four or five days. That's really something that I think we've done as much as we can to address.

"Now it's going to be up to the kids to get their competitive juices going and to realize there's going to be hundreds of players sitting at home watching and wishing they were playing.