No team has more of a reason to be upset about being left out of the NCAA tournament than St. Mary's.  As a matter of fact the Gaels (26-6) didn't even receive a top seed in the NIT. They fell to the second line in the 32 team tournament as another tourney snub San Diego St. took number one in that specific bracket.

I feel like the Gaels definitely deserved to be a part of the Big Dance. With a healthy Patty Mills (their star guard - think Stephen Curry, but more of a playmaker than a shooter) this team opened the season 18-1. Then in the midst of conference play, Mills proceeded to go down with a wrist injury in the first half of a big game against Gonzaga. With Mills on the court during that game, the Gaels led by six at halftime, and then without Mills, they lost the second half by 13.

After Patty went down, the Gaels lost the next three out of four, but then rebounded and adjusted without him, and won five straight games while they waited for Mills' wrist to heal. When he returned to the line-up, St. Mary's won unimpressively against Portland, but then lost to Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference tournament.

I understand that they didn't quite end the season convincingly but think about this, St. Mary's won a total of 26 games. Twenty six games! And they still didn't get in, that's just ridiculous. I guess ultimately, the numbers proved to squeeze them out. Some bubble unfriendly conference winners (USC, Mississippi State, etc.) really shrunk the bubble which in turn really hurt St. Mary's chances of getting in despite their solid regular season record. With all that being said though I think the selection committee blew it when it came down to choosing possibly the last bubble team. I'm sorry Arizona Wildcats fans but hey, you know deep down that the team they put on the floor this year desperately underachieved in a weak Pac 10 conference. I guess sometimes the committee likes to award teams with rich college basketball traditions and I feel like that's the main reason Arizona was ultimately selected over St. Mary's.

Another factor that hurt the Gaels was the lack of a tough non-conference schedule. The Gaels only went 2-3 against teams in the RPI top 50 and they lost three times to conference foe Gonzaga, including a horrendous 83-58 defeat in the finals of the WCC tournament. Furthermore, they only beat three RPI top-100 opponents so their computer profile status obviously hurt them.

Nevertheless I think they were snubbed but after looking at how the team reacted to this situation I was impressed with their level of maturity concerning this issue. Mills was quoted as saying, "we did get our hopes up a little, but there's a great lesson to be learned on how to handle adversity and how to handle distractions and making the most of your opportunities." Good for him and he can definitely put his money where his mouth is if he can lead the Gaels to an NIT tournament victory.