On his team not making the NIT field when the bids were announced Sunday, John Brady said:
"Are we one of the best 24 teams after the top 65? I think we are, but we didn't do what we needed to do this year to deserve to go anywhere."
I couldn't have said it better.
This team underachieved pretty much the entire season, taking a downward spiral beginning with the loss at Texas (you remember, when Garrett Temple jacked a 23-footer on the final possession without Glen Davis touching the ball). Their play in the SEC was a disaster and it looked like nobody ever tried to do anything to make it better. Now LSU has re-joined a non-distinct club:
LSU is one of seven teams in the last 10 years that have played in the Final Four one season and missed the NCAA tournament the next. George Mason was also in the 2006 national semifinals last season and not in the field this season. Other teams that have met that fate recently are Louisville (2005), Marquette (2003), Minnesota (1997), Syracuse (1996) and Mississippi State (1996).
The Tigers also turned the penthouse-to-left out trick in 1982, when they finished 14-14 overall with a first-round NIT loss to Tulane, one year after appearing in the 1981 Final Four in Philadelphia.