The men's basketball team is one of 11 teams with over 20 wins which will compete in the National Invitation Tournament.

That group includes Southern Illinois, a team with a 26-7 record and a collective chip on its shoulder toward the NCAA. The Salukis host Wisconsin-Green Bay on Thursday.

Other teams with a lot of wins but no NCAA bids are Southern University (25-5), Holy Cross (24-5) and Hawaii (23-9). The Lions' record stands at 21-8.

"Well, there's only so many teams that can go into each tournament," Assistant Executive Director Paul Clark said. "And we have a quality field and they have a very quality field. I think in our field there is a lot of parity."

While being invited to the NCAA is like opening a present on Christmas Day and finding a shiny new toy, the general feeling about getting into the NIT instead of the NCAA is like opening up a present and finding coal.

But it wasn't always like that. When the NIT started in 1938, it was the tournament until the NCAA tournament, begun the following year, started to gain power. Clark said his tournament fell out of favor because it couldn't keep up.

"I think it was probably in the early 70s," Clark said. "What happened was the NCAA television rights came along."

The Lions were no different in showing their disappointment. Ed Fogell said they were still a little bit down.

"Personally, I really didn't get my hopes up a whole lot, so it wasn't as devastating as it might have been," Fogell said. "But I think we're still happy with the NIT, we're happy that we can go out and play some more basketball."

"I think (the NIT bid) is good," reserve center Dave Degitz said. "It gives us another chance to play and it's good that at least we got that."

Fogell did, however, say it was fun just to be in a position to get into the tournament.

"There was a lot of excitement in just the anticipation of it," Fogell said. "As the teams were going along it was fun to realize that you could be matched up against a Georgetown or a Syracuse or someone like that. We didn't, but at least we have the NIT now."